


Self Discovery, Anxiety, and Destruction in Lylat

by orphan_account



Category: Star Fox Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Arwings (Star Fox), Betrayal, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gay Male Character, Gen, LGBTQ Themes, Lesbian Character, Minor Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Relationship(s), Slow Burn, Star Fox, Star Fox 64 | Lylat Wars, Strained Friendships, Tags May Change, Trans, Transgender, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2020-10-26 00:44:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 40,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20733449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: As Fox finds himself repressing his emotions and trauma more and more and Falco begins to explore his own identity, a deadly conspiracy begins to rock the Lylat system. The team will have to come to terms with each other and their situation if they have any hope of thwarting a deadly foe who has always lurked under their noses





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (This is one of the first things I've written in a long long long time. So please expect a lot of the narrative and writing generally to be kind of spotty.)
> 
> [Update:Sept 28 2019]-
> 
> I am likely to revise the title, bio and tags at some point to better match various aspects of the direction this is taking. As what I've written is quite different from what I intially imagined.
> 
> [Update:oct 04 2019]-
> 
> bio and title revisions to better reflect the story this has developed into
> 
> [Update: Oct 15 2019]-
> 
> I'm planning to do some slight revisions to earlier chapters to correct some weird spellings and a couple of things I named in-consistently.

CHAPTER 1

The Arwing aimlessly and slowly drifted forwards in its auto pilot mode. Its surroundings a desolate, long since destroyed and abandoned military base near Sector X.

It was a lonesome part of the lylat system, but here, at least, he knew he'd be well and truly alone. He came here often. Always alone. Because that was what he sought out. As this was the only place he could be himself.

The young blue bird had a tired look on his face. He sighed as he turned the transmission systems on his ship to "off". He figured nobody would be calling him since he said he was just on a basic, short patrol and he'd be back before anyone would notice.

Looking out of his side window. He contemplated the habit of his he was currently acting out. He stared out into space for a full minute with these thoughts echoing through his brain, before bringing the routine of this now common habit of his into action.

He adjusted his rear view mirror to get a good look at his face, causing a pang of stress to hit his stomach. he *hated* his face with all his heart for as long as he could remember. Even if the opinions of his peers seemed to range on the more "handsome" side of the spectrum, he absolutely loathed it.

he opened and swung down his glove compartment. Reaching into it for the one thing he knew of that helped ease this discontentment.

Pulling out a stick of purple lipstick, he removed the cap as he reached it up to his face. extending the stick and placing his beak close to the rear view mirror so he could work on that area.

With a shakey hand, he slowly began to move the lipstick across his beak. Although he wasn't the best at it, it sure beat when he first started doing this and the lipstick ended up all over the place. 

Finishing up, he got a good look at himself both by moving his head around and adjusting the rear view mirror. A small smile ran up his beak as a feeling of warmth speed throughout his chest. A feeling he up until recently, hadn't normally felt. 

As these feelings continued to spread across his body, he realized he was glad to have these little moments to himself. During the Lylat Wars that ravaged a lot of the system, he had little time to be by himself. Time spent constantly on duty was time spent repressing his deepest feelings. He reached for the dial of his radio for some background music to help digest these feelings with.

After spending quite a time blankly looking out his window and letting the music fill his head, He took a quick look at his digital watch, which read a time of "6.30 PM".

"Almost time to go" he thought out loud with a sigh.

Wiping the lipstick off was something he hated doing but was unfortunately a part of this routine that had to be performed.

As he adjusted various knobs and flicked various buttons on his ships front panel, the Arwing flickered to life.

"All clear. Returning to base" Falco said into an onboard transmission system upon flicking a final switch.

As Falco finished wiping off the final bit of lipstick on his beak, the ship jumped into hyperspeed. And before he knew it he was right back at his base and home, the Great Fox.

Falco jumped out of his cockpit and into the docking bay of the ship. He eyed Fox kneeling down under his ship, adjusting some of its inner workings.

"Ya headed out for patrol, too?" Falco asked as he slowly walked towards Fox. Only to find that his only reply was complete silence.

"Ay...ya hear me? said if ya were headin' out for patrol too!" Falco said slightly loudly as he stopped walking, now standing directly behind him.

"JEEZ!" Fox almost screamed as turned his head around with a start, almost seemingly almost jumping out of his skin. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"C'mon man, I gave ya enough notice." 

Unfortunately, these kinds of interactions with Fox had become all too common since the end of the Lylat Wars. Falco could only assume that his confrontation with Andross has taken a toll on him. To be honest, Falco was deeply worried about him, although he'd never admit it.

"Nah" replied Fox after a short silence "Heading out to talk to the General about some intel we might of gotten"

"Intel?" Falco asked, looking around the bay "Do we gotta care about any of that stuff now that the wars done n dusted?"

"Doesn't hurt to check" Fox replied, pushing himself up to stand "And besides it seemed important enough for the general to try and reach me directly"

"by the way, catch anything on patrol?" Fox asked as he chucked on a jacket he had left on a nearby bench 

"Not a thing. Its been, ah, pretty quiet out there since we capped dat whole thing off"

Fox looked at him for a second, as if caught deep in thought

"Well, that's good to hear." Fox replied, looking at his watch "I really gotta get going. Hold down the fort for me, would ya?"

"Yeah yeah, I hear ya"

Although he showed no sign of it externally, the amount of responsibility Fox had been lumping upon him lately as a result of his now pretty regular absense had begun to feel like a bit much.  
"No worries. I got it all held down here" he lied as he walked out of the docking bay and almost directly into his room. Almost instantly collapsing into bed. As his head hit the pillows he began to feel his mind be covered by the deep clouds of tiredness which he continued to fall deeper and deeper into until he was fully asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Falco slowly opened his eyes and gently rubbed them with his arms. Although he wouldn't have known it beforehand due to nothing but the deep vastness of space being the only thing outside his window, he soon found the time was 4.30AM upon looking at an alarm clock he had at the side of his bed. Though it wasn't an ideal time to wake up at, decent sleep had sadly eluded him recently.

Sitting up and trying to shake off the last remnants of sleep that lingered in his brain, he took a quick look around to slowly take in his surrounding.

His small room that he called home for quite some time at this point was a messy little space. Old takeout wrappers and old, unwashed clothes littered the floor. Hardly the place you'd expect a now universe renowned hero to call home but Falco cared little for what spaces he lived inside.

Now getting up and taking a stretch. Falco decided it'd be a good idea to get dressed as soon as possible. He had some errands he wanted to run and he was interested to see what Intel Fox had apparently gone off to talk about.

Kneeling down in front of his bed, he reached out an arm towards a small drawer that was attached to the bed itself. Opening it revealed his small collection of mostly clothes used for on-duty. As such it was all generally white jackets, an orange shirt and some orange trousers. However, Falco noticed something in the pile that caught him by surprise. 

A bright red dress sat there amongst all his other clothes. Pulling it out, Falco wondered how on earth such a thing managed to end up in his clothes drawer of all things.

The answer revealed itself as Falco noticed the label on the inside had writing seemingly drawn in marker reading “Property of Katt Monroe”

Falco realized that this probably got left here the last time his ex had stayed here. A relationship that didn't work out for a long list of reasons. Reasons Falco really really did not want to think about right now.

It was as Falco tried to eject the feelings of his failed relationship out of his mind when he noticed his full-body mirror sitting on the other end of the room. And as he did, various thoughts entered his mind. Thoughts that made him feel....nice....

Gently rubbing the fabric of the dress between his fingers and getting up, he stood in front of the mirror and slowly but surely threw the dress over his head, slowly wiggling into it, it was kind of a tight fit, but what Falco saw upon fitting his head through it filled him with a bliss unlike anything he had ever felt before. 

he was, staring into a reflection of him wearing a soft red dress. It felt so soft against his feathers and he was filled with so many feelings he had never felt in his life.

the most prominent one, he felt, was this strange sense of self that washed over him and made him feel warm.

Moving around and doing various poses to get a good look at himself from various angles had caused something to appear on Falco's face that, if you asked any of the people he knew would be considered a rarity: a smile.

A knock from outside his door threw him out of this sense of bliss.

“Jeez! Awight! Be right over!” Falco awkwardly yelled out as he rushed to throw the dress off and put on the clothes he normally put on

swinging open his door, he saw a young frog, quite a bit shorter than himself, anxiously looking around the hall. It almost seemed as if he hadn't even noticed that the door had just opened and that Falco now stood right in front of him.

"Ay Slipps.... ya here?''

"Hi!” Slippy said with a jump “H-HI!!”

after greeting Falco. Slippy took a few steps back, deeply breathing to try to recover from the shock and a silence hit the room for a short time.

“Ya alright there?” Asked Falco “Whatcha need?

“Ah...its....” stuttered Slippy “H-have you s-seen Fox a-a-round??”

" not since last night....” replied Falco “Why?”

“Ah he uh” Slippy said before gulping “His uh, arwing has completely gone off the grid and we...um...w-we've tried to h-hail him but we can't....”

Fox being off for days at a time following the Lylat Wars was something Falco had gotten used to in recent times. But Falco couldn't recall a time where it was impossible to even hail him. Slippy's anxiety, for once, seemed warranted to Falco.

Falco rushed past Slippy without a word and was almost at the end of the hall before Slippy interupted him

“H—hey....whe-where do you think you're going?”

“I got a few spots I gotta check out!” Replied Falco, turning his head “Keep on tryin' to hail him.” 

Slippy began to speak again but before he could even get a word in, Falco had walked out of the door. 

Falco crawled into the cockpit of his Arwing. And began flicking various switches, causing the ship's windshield to lower down and close and the engines to spring to life.

“There's one place I can think of where ol foxy could be” Falco thought to himself. Tapping a few coordinates into a touch screen. The engines charged up to full power and then launched him out of the cockpit and into the deep endless expanse of space...

He knew his destination....he was revisiting Corneria for the first time since the Lylat War


	3. Chapter 3

The arwing began its landing procedures, the sound of the engines powering down drowned out by the heavy rain and thunder that pelted on the windshield from outside. As the ship touched down and the engines began to fully power down. Falco took a look around his surroundings. He had landed in a small, yet expensive and well maintained looking graveyard. 

As the windshield opened up, Falco felt the heavy rain pelting against his body. Jumping out of the ship and looking around, he saw exactly what he expected.

Standing in front of a small grave was his friend and comrade, Fox McCloud. Falco didn't really need to guess why he was here.

Falco slowly walked up behind him. His boots making a crunchy noise across the gravel as he did. It didn't take long for Fox to notice he was here.

“Ay! Figured I'd find ya here.” Falco said as he stood behind Fox “Ol slipps has been tryin to hail ya for quite a bit”

Fox tilted his head back to look at Falco. An almost absent sort of look filled his eyes as he spoke.

“Yeah...I'll...” he paused, “I'll...be back soon...no worries”

Fox tilted his head back to look at the grave. As Falco's eyes also got directed at it as a result, he read what was on it 

“James McCloud. A hero taken before his time. May Lylat remember his sacrifice.”

Falco was quite honestly concerned at Fox's recent behavior. Although he'd had trouble articulating it vocally, he was deeply concerned.

However, taking a deep sigh, Falco decided to let at least a little of his facade drop

“Hey Fox, listen” he said, putting a hand on Fox's shoulder “I know this whole thing and thinking about ya pops has probably taken' quite'a toll on ya....why don't ya-”

Falco would regret letting this facade drop.

“He's NOT dead!” Fox would scream before turning to take a swing at Falco, which Falco stepped back to dodge in spite of his surprise as thankfully, being on guard was something Falco was used to at this point. 

“Jeez chill” replied Falco, now throwing his facade back onto himself “If ya gonna' be like that I'll leave ya to it”

Without any additional words, Falco began to walk back towards his ship. Leaving fox behind heavily panting in the rain. Fox idly stood by as he watched his comrade jump into his ship. he watched it take off and continued to watch the ship take off into the clouds till it was nothing but a small dot in the distance.

It was then, when he was sure he was alone, that Fox walked towards a nearby bench and pulled a shovel out from under it. And upon walking back to the grave, began to dig down into it.

Falco was halfway back from Cornera when the smartphone that lay in his trouser pockets began to buzz. With one hand on the controls, he used the other to reach into his pocket and pull out the phone. And with a few simple taps brought up the messaging app.

[Peppy] Vegetable soup

[Falco]: Huh?

[Peppy] Oh sorry sonny. Sent that to the wrong person

[Falco] What's up

[Peppy]: Fox just got into contact with us. Its all good...

[Falco]: Yeah

[Peppy] Could ya go pick up some clothes from the Cornera Orbital mall? Slippy just accidentally launched some from the air lock

[Falco]: Again? Sure.

[Peppy]: Sardines

The messaging app filled up with jarringly over-animated thumbs up gifs, all sent by peppy in a matter of seconds. Falco sighed

[Peppy] lol sorry these new fancy devices are too advanced for an old bean like me

[Falco] Alright. I'll be back soon

The app continued to fill with thumbs up emoji as Falco sighed and closed the phone. Putting it back into his pocket

Pushing a few buttons, Falco changed his course from the Gray Fox to the Mall.

Falco had wandered through the clothing store for a little while. Picking up various white jackets and jeans. Star Fox's signature uniform style. A style that had actually become quite a popular fashion statement post Lylat Wars.

It was as Falco was wandering around the store that something caught his eye for the second time today. A row of deep purple bras and panties lined a section he was near to. As he blankly stared at them for quite sometime, thoughts that made him feel warm again began to fill his head. Without delay, he grabbed a pair and walked over to the changing room as quickly as he could.

As he stood alone in the changing room, Falco sat on a bench that was inside and idly looked into the full-view mirror. Putting the clothes he was getting together for the rest of the team down, he was left with just the bra and panties in his hands. Rubbing his fingers across the soft fabric left him feeling giddy.

Pulling off his jacket and shirt, his topless reflection now looked back at him from the mirror. This was a sight he absolutely hated. Something about his form and flat chest, for lack of a better word, made him feel sick.

Pulling the bra over his chest, it took his fingers a few awkward tries to get the bra on, but when he did, a feeling of euphoria washed over him.

His upper body still wasn't, ideal, but something about the addition of a bra helped him feel better about that somehow. For reasons that honestly eluded him.

A few minutes later, he had put the panties on too. His appearance with the addition of the bra and panties filled him with a joy quite unlike anything he had ever felt before. He couldn't help but move around and do various poses to get a good look at himself. It was the most bliss he had ever felt in his life.


	4. Chapter 4

Fox had been digging into the grave for a solid ten minutes. Only looking around to make sure nobody had entered the graveyard breaking his stride. Why he was doing something so odd and irrational as digging up his own fathers grave only he knew. But he had his reasons.

As he dug deeper and deeper, he thought back on his meeting with General Pepper that spurred this. The conversation rushed back into his mind and even after several hours of consideration, made absolutely no sense to him. 

The rain got heavier and continued to pelt against him as the sky grew darker and darker as he dug and dug.

Eventually....exactly what he expected to see lay before him. A sense of absolute dread washed over him. Why was this like this? HOW was this like this??

With anger rising in his heart. Fox quickly undid the work he had done on the grave and returned to his ship. With this new knowledge in mind. He had some questions he needed answered. 

It was a few hours since Falco had returned from the mall. He sat in the break room by himself. Idly drinking a cup of coffee. A zoness brand he was quite fond of. An old looking CRT tv stood on a small desk near the small table he himself sat at. As he took a small slurp of his coffee. He absently listened in to the audio that played through the television.

“IS SCROMBISS RIGHT FOR YOU?”

“WE'RE RIGHT HERE ON CORNERAS WEST EAST CITY TO ASK OUR CUSTOMERS THEIR EXPIRENCES WITH SCROMBISS!”

“SIR. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF SCROMBISS?”

“Scrombiss changed my life”

“THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS. SCROMBISS CHANGED HIS LIFE. AND IT'LL CHANGE YOURS TOO”

Falco was listening and considering if scrombiss would also change his life, when Peppy and Slippy walked into the rec room. Falco watched as the two grabbed their own cups of coffee and sat on the same table as Falco did.

The two joined Falco in staring into the TV to see the many merits of whatever the heck this “Scrombiss” product was. The three sat in complete silence until Peppy decided to break that silence.

“Guys. I've been really worried about Fox lately” Peppy said as he put his cup of coffee on the table.

Falco turned on his chair to face Peppy. Although he'd never say it to his face. Peppy was almost a father figure to him. And seeing the concern and worry wash over his face like this was something that made a pang of sadness flow into his heart.

“Eh. I'm sure ol' einstien is fine” Falco replied.

“Well, I sure hope so. That boy has been...lacking better words that boy has been, skittish lately”

“Ah well” sighed peppy. Standing up. “I'm going to get some air and go on a basic patrol. Any of ya'll want to come with”

“W-well ok” replied Slippy “I-I just f-f-inished some repairs so i-i might as well”

“Nah. I'll stick a'round here” replied Falco.

“G-otcha”

“Hail us if you need anything” replied Peppy, walking out of the room alongside Slippy.

After a few minutes. Falco found himself entirely alone on the Great Fox. It took a few seconds for this to dawn on him.

He was entirely alone on the ship for the first time he could recall. The possibilities and implications of this began to gain root in his mind.

It was a few minutes later that Falco found himself sitting in the Great Fox's changing room with his collection that was a mix of new and “borrowed” clothes.

Throwing them on slowly but surely and getting a short look at himself through one of the many full-view mirrors that were in the room. A small smile crawled onto his face. Shortly after he went over to one of the sinks and slowly but surely put lipstick over his beak. He had improved at this a little since the last time he had done it and the lipstick work had come out quite a bit cleaner and accurately. 

It was then, as he stared at his reflection in the mirror, that he decided to do something he hadn't tried to do before.

Pulling out a small tube of mascara and pulling out the brush, he began to dab it across his eye lashes with a shaky hand. His eye lashes slightly changing form and color as he did. 

It turned out to be quite a messy job, and required quite a few tries and tidying up. But upon finishing the job as best as he could. His reflection again filled him with joy.

He then moved back over to the nearby full-body mirror and his reflection filled him with bliss.

His face covered in lipstick and mascara and his form covered by a bright red and soft dress filled him with so, so much bliss that he couldn't help but blush. Doing a little twirl and viewing himself at various angles. He spent quite a few minutes doing this and honestly didn't want to stop.

Falco wanted to just wander around and do his regular routines in the gray fox like this. But it was something he, sadly, considered quite a bit too risky. So he instead settled with just lounging around in his room in this get-up.

And so he lay down on his bed, fiddling with his smartphone and viewing various feeds. The weight that had hung over his heart before now suddenly being lifted. Although he knew he'd have to stop doing this at some point. Falco honestly didn't want to. Something about being this way honestly made him feel a sense of self he hadn't felt in his entire life. He felt such coziness to the point he had soon dozed off without even expecting it.


	5. Chapter 5

Fox walked into a small cafe, he hadn't expected this to be the place for this particular meeting. Looking across the sea of tables and people filling the small establishment, it wasn't long before his eyes caught the man he was looking for.

There, in an obscure corner of the room, sat General Pepper, in a dark black incredibly expensive suit, sunglasses and a newspaper doing its best to obscure his identity.

Fox had done similarly, throwing his father's old sunglasses onto his face. A minimal approach but one he hoped decently obscured his identity.

As the strong aroma of coffee filled his senses, he juked and jived through the crowd of people, slowly approaching his destination.

As he sat down at the table, the general adjusted his newspaper down to get a good look at the young fox who sat at his table. 

As fox pulled in his chair, the general got straight to the point. Displaying a distinctly different personality that Fox had seen in his tour of duty.

“If I didn't owe you, I wouldn't even entertain this farce” 

“But you do” replied Fox “And you're going to answer my questions.”

“I'll answer whatever I deem necessary. Don't expect me to give you any national secrets. Remember that I completely outrank you.”

As the general pulled up his glass to sip his coffee, Fox began his line of questioning.

“I know my father isn't dead.”

The general eyed him with surprise. Putting his coffee down on the table.

“Listen. I attended your father's funeral myself. He died in the line of duty and I don't particularly appreciate you trivializing his sacrifice like this. He was a good soldier”

“I think you're the person trivializing what he did” sneered fox as he tossed a pen drive onto the table. “I don't believe in ghosts and I'm sure you don't either.”

The general reached for the pen drive, curiosity suddenly flaring up in his eyes.

“I can tell this meeting isn't getting anywhere” Fox said as he got up from his chair, turning to leave “That's a recording from my Arwings camera. Watch it and contact me again”

Fox began walking to leave, leaving the general in sheer disbelief. It wouldn't be long till he saw exactly what Fox had meant.

Falco was deep, deep into sleep in his room. The deepest sleep he had probably been in for years and years. It wasn't often he had any sort of dreams at all. But today was apparently an exception as an extremely vivid dream played back in his mind.

He was a small child again and back at his parents' home. He lay back on a small sofa, idly and excitedly watching the hit movie of the winter: Scrombiss: The Movie.

Towards his head, His sister stood on the side of the sofa, gently combing his head feathers and smoothing them out. 

It was during this process, that she noticed her brother had suddenly dozed off. This wasn't surprising to her since schoolwork had been quite tough on him lately. It was then a mischievous idea hit her mind. One that would be possible thanks in part due to something she had learnt in school recently.

Grabbing a small, longer section of his feathers and pulling it into an almost pony-tail-ish sort of form. she began to divide it into three equal parts and ensuring each of them were smooth, she pulled out some hair bands from her pocket and began the process of Braiding the young birds hair.

Leaving to go to her mother's room, she soon returned, her arms almost filled to the brim with a collection of her mother's makeup. It wasn't long before she got to work on his brother's face.

Her goal was somewhere along the line of “legitimately cute, but also vaguely ridiculous” which was incredibly easy as makeup had become sort of a hobby of hers in recent years. Smearing lipstick, eyeshadow, and a variety of other makeup onto his face, it was a short time before she had completely finished her work. She had done this entirely as a joke but actually was surprised at how pretty her brother had ended up.

It was as she went upstairs to return the makeup to her mother's room, that the door bell rang, making her jump. She heard her brother wake up with a moan of surprise from the living room, quickly rushing up the stairs to hide, and peeking out from the corner of the top of the stairs. 

She watched as her brother walked to the front door and swung it open.

A young pizza man stood on the other end of the now open front door. A look of surprise hit his face as he saw the young man almost caked in makeup

“Ay, eres ya money” said falco, pulling out a 20 dollar note from his pocket “Parents aren't in right now buddy”

Falco held out the money with one hand and reached out for the pizza box with the other. 

The pizza man replied by silently grabbing the money and giving the young bird the pizza box, followed by Falco closing the door and turning around. 

“Ay whatcha lookin at!” asked Falco, noticing his sister giggling at the top of the stairs

It was then that falco found himself getting awoken by his alarm clock, it startling him as he half hearlty reached out to slam the button that turned the infernal racket off.

Later in the day, Falco sat alone in his arwing. Again near the small abandoned base near Sector X. He had come here on his “patrol” that he had at this point made into a habit. Idly reaching into the glove compartment for his stick of lipstick, but it was then that something caught the corner of his eye, a bright glare of light just a small distance away from his own ship. It was then Falco realized that he was far from the only person here.


	6. Chapter 6

“Hey geniuses” sneered Falco “I can see ya.”

The radio remained quiet for a few more seconds then was comfortable

“If ya gonna try to sneak up on me, at least turn your lights of-”

Falco didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as a few beams of energy flew past his ship.

“Jeez!” Falco muttered as he pushed forward on the ship's joystick, trying to ensure it got to maximum speed as soon as possible. As he did more and more lasers flew past his ship. Almost hitting him in some cases.

As his ship gained in speed, Falco realized something about the beams that whizzed past him. Their color.

The color they were was an almost universal indicator that they had been set to a “Stun” mode. They'd probably knock out anyone they hit and in addition knock out any electronic equipment. But they absolutely didn't tend to kill. Whoever was shooting at him wanted to take him alive.

Which brought Falco to another point: His attackers. Whoever they were and wherever they were shooting from, he couldn't see them. They were either very very good at hiding in plain sight, or they were using some sort of cloaking technology. Given that there was little to hide behind, Falco hedged his bets on the latter. 

Falcos arwing was now going at full bolt. Now dodging and weaving through various pieces of debris that littered the sector. The beams just kept on coming as he did. Hitting said debris and in some cases almost hitting his ship. A blessing as getting hit would be a death sentence. 

As Falco looked everywhere he could to try and get ANY idea where his attackers were. He eyed something else: Titania.

It was a planet on which absolutely ANY air traffic was forbidden on. But Falco had no choice because even though he hated to admit it: he had a better chance of taking down his assailants on the ground.

Turning his ship towards the planet as fast as he could as he pushed several buttons in an attempt to get the arwing into landing mode as quick as possible. In an instance his ship began to speed toward the planet.

However: His arwing began to do something weird. Screens turned off and various systems reported themselves as also having been turned off. Falco had SWORN he hadn't been hit by a single one of those beams. But these thoughts mattered little since he was quickly hit by one of the many beams that flew towards him. 

His head slammed against the front of his cockpit as even more Arwing systems began to shut down. His attempts to try and correct this were fruitless as he quickly lost consciousness. 

Fox walked into General Peppers office. He had told his colleagues he was here to recieve some intel. But really he was here to continue the discussion he had with General Pepper earlier in the cafe.

General Pepper turned around in his office chair to face Fox, apparently now that he was back in uniform, Pepper had returned to the personality that he had maintained during foxes tour of duty.

“Fox. What was on that pen drive was of GREAT concern.

“It sure is” Fox replied, sitting on a chair opposite of Peppers desk “Now my next question is: what do YOU know about it”

“I had hoped it would never come to this” Pepper said as he leaned forward into his desk “But we have reason to believe there is a traitor on the Star Fox team”

Fox was appaled at this suggestion. A traitor, on HIS team? Everyone he worked with he considered family and them betraying him was an almost absurd suggestion.

“Impossible!” replied Fox, as he leaned forward towards pepper, almost to the point of standing up.

“We have reason to believe that joining your team was the best way for this traitor to gain access to the Arwing technology” replied Pepper “What you saw in Androsses base was not in fact your Father. After extensive analysis of your footage we have reason to believe its an altered Arwing. One capable of being remotely controlled!” 

Fox was shocked at these revelations. But it did make what he had seen there make sense. His father's Arwing was long destroyed in the incident that killed him. It would have been impossible for it to have reappeared here. It was more likely someone used a spare. The only ones who would be able to gain access to that, as far as fox knew, would be someone on his own team. 

“Fox” Pepper continued, “We need you to investigate this. We can't risk making moves on this on our own!”

Fox rose from his seat. “For sure Sir. I'll try my best” 

Fox began to leave, slowly approaching the dark brown, fancy wooden doors that he had entered through, but then, pepper started talking again.

“Fox....” Pepper said, leaning against his desk “We have reason to believe that the group the traitor is from has a particular....Interest.....in your father”

Fox turned “What do you mean, exactly?”

“Fox we.....we have reason to believe it even goes as far as them having your father's body” Pepper looked down at his desk “I just...thought you should be the first to know”

A rush of emotions flowed through Fox. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY HAVE MY FATHERS BODY!?” he wanted to yell. This was absolutely absurd. Without another word Fox swung the doors open and began to leave. He had somewhere he needed to check: His father's resting place. 

Falco again found himself dreaming. He saw himself in front of a full-body mirror and a strange, almost entirely dark space, the only thing illuminating him was a strange spotlight that hung over him. As he stared blankly into the full-view mirror, a strange reflection began to manifest of himself. A strangely more femme looking version of himself. Falco couldn't help but stare into this, and feel discontent over how he looked in comparison to what he saw in the mirror.

It was then that he was shook awake. A sense of relief washing over him as he realized he was in his own bedroom. Surrounded by members of the Starfox team. He had many questions about what had happened post being knocked unconcious. But for right now he was happy to relax in the knowledge he was safe.


	7. Chapter 7

Fox returned to the ship. His mind rushing after what he had uncovered at the graveyard. It still made absolutely no sense to him. How on earth could his father's body be absent from his grave? Who would have gone that far and why? General Peppers words echoed through his mind

“We have reason to believe they have your father's body”

Fox walked towards the Gray Foxes bridge. He had numerous things to fact check if there was indeed a traitor among his team. It was still a hard pill to swallow for Fox. But he knew he'd have to confront it head on if he wanted to get to the bottom of things that had been occuring lately.

Entering the bridge. He saw Peppy fast asleep on one of the chairs. A chair that was right in front of one of the computers he had wanted to access. 

Slowly but surely walking towards the desk in an attempt to not awaken peppy and alert him to his presence, he eventually stood idly behind the sleeping hare. Reaching over behind him to start gently typing commands into the keyboard. He eventually reached the screen he wanted to see: The pilots log screen.

Looking for anything suspicious in the pilot's logs, it wasn't long before Fox noticed something that caught his eye.

Falco had been making numerous patrol routines to a small area to sector X. Not a suspicious occurrence in itself. But what WAS suspicious was how several comms and radar systems almost always got turned off almost as soon he had entered the area.

Fox's heart hung in his throat in despair: He had reason to believe he had found his traitor. Even worse, according to the log that's where he currently was.

As he quietly left the room, he turned on his comms mic that lay on his ear.

“Pepper send a squad out to Sector X. I found our traitor”

“Geez, I never thought I'd be so happy to see you guys” said Falco as he sat up in his bed. It was then that something had caught his eye.

His bedroom door was open, and several armed soldiers in a Cornera military uniform stood outside it. Almost as if to guard what was inside

Falco attempted to stand up. Only to be shocked to find Fox pointed a blaster at him in point-blank range. Falco got the message and sat back down.

“So what's this all about, Einstien?”

Fox leaned into him. Their faces almost touching. A look of anger fell over Foxes face.

“What did you DO with my father's body!” Fox yelled. Almost loud enough to the point of hurting Falcos ears.

“Jeez” Said Falco, sitting back and avoiding eye contact “I don't have a clue whatcha talkin about! Could ya try and speak in plain lylatian so I can understand what you're saying?”

Fox slammed his fist into one of the nearby walls. Almost shaking with anger.

“DAMN IT FALCO!” yelled fox “THIS ISNT HELPING YOUR SITUATION! JUST COME OUT CLEAN WITH IT”

“H—hey fox” whispered Slippy “D-don't you thin-think you're taking this a bit far? I-I mean I'm s-sure there's a reasonable explanation fo-”

“YOU BE QUIET” Fox said as he swung around, pointing his blaster at Slippy

Although he put on a snarky facade on the outside. Falco was absolutely baffled by what was happening around him. How had his friends, no, his family, lost trust in him like this when he still trusted them with all his heart. 

“P-please” said slippy, turning to look at Peppy, who stood behind him “P-please talk some sense into h-him....”

Peppy just stood there in silence....his eyes closed and his fingers rubbing the bridge of his nose in stress. Seemingly trying to go to another world away from where all this was happening. 

“Slippy.” Commanded fox “Search this room”

“B-BUT” stuttered Slippy “I-I really don't think falco i-”

“JUST DO IT” Screamed Fox.

Slippy reluctantly began to do so. Searching various drawers and desk. It wasn't long before Slippy stood in front of Falco's bed. Reluctantly, about to search through his drawer. Falco knew what he would find in there would reveal things he'd rather his team members and family didn't know. But he knew if he made a fuss it'd probably worsen his situation.

“I-im really sorry abo-about this falco...” whispered Slippy.

“I'm sorry too, Buddy” Replied Falco in a rare show of compassion for the young toad. 

Slippy kneeled down, rummaging through the drawer as Fox and Falco watched on. Falco braced himself for what he knew he would find in there.

“Tell me what's in there....” commanded fox

“I-i-i uh” whispered Slippy”

“I SAID, TELL ME WHATS IN THERE!” Yelled fox.

“There're uh---lots and l-lots of uniforms and uh....a dress....??”

All the eyes in the room once again focused on Falco 

“Ay! They aint mine!” Lied Falco “Katt left em ere when she stayed over”

Slippy quickly returned to his previous position in front of Peppy. Who still seemed quite stressed by the whole situation.

“WHATS THE DEAL” yelled fox even louder than he had been yelling before “WHAT ARE YOU HIDING!”

“IM TELLIN' YA FOXY, I AIN'T HIDIN' NOTHIN!”

The screaming match wouldn't have a chance to continue, as both Fox and Falco heard a blaster click into active mode from behind them

As the two turned to face the source of the noise. Their eyes took in a horrifying sight:

There Peppy stood. One arm in a vice like grip around Slippy. And the other pointing his gun directly into Slippys temple

“SLIPPY!” Yelled fox. Concern filling his voice. Falco was almost equally concerned and stood up as fast as he could.

“E...enough of this” Said peppy, tiredness filling his voice “I-I hate seeing ya'all rip into each other like this”

“Peppy!” yelled fox “What are you doing!!”

“I-” stuttered Peppy “I'm the traitor you're looking for, Fox.”

Shock flew through both Foxes and Falcos minds. Peppy was a traitor?? how? The old hare had been almost a father to the two.

The four idly stood still in the room, almost like statues. A long silence filling the room. However, it wouldn't be long before the situation became much, much worse.


	8. Chapter 8

As Peppy slowly inched out of the room with Slippy still firmly in his grasp. He had noticed something extremely odd:

The guards that had been standing there before had entirely vanished.

As Fox and Falco slowly inched towards the door to try and follow Peppy, a voice began to blare through the ship's speaker system.

“The Starfox team, renowned throughout the lylat system” Said the voice“ It is unfortunate that such a tragic fate befell them all”

Everyone on board recognized this voice

“General Pepper!” yelled Fox!

“They made such sacrifices to make the galaxy a better place...truely an inspiration to us all....its such a shame that a catastrophic mechanical failure was the end of them all....”

As the two listened to Pepper ramble on, a huge explosion rocked the ship. Causing fox and falco to almost lose balance and fall over.

“YOU!” yelled Falco “Just wait till I get my hands on ya!”

“By the way” Said Pepper “This little speech of mine is pre-recorded so I won't be able to hear the classy insults I'm sure you're throwing my way”

“But it is such a shame that the Starfox team is now dearly departed after their ship fell to pieces entirely by itself...they were truely an example to us all. Its a shame they're dead now” 

Another explosion rocked the ship. Causing the alarm system to blare into life, replacing the ship's default lights with a bright red strobe and filling the pair's ears with an ear-splitting alarm.

It was in the commotion that they realized they had lost track of something important: 

Peppy was no longer anywhere to be seen. The two rushed out of the door. But upon frantically looking along the long hallway, he and Slippy were nowhere to be found.

“Darn it!!” Yelled Fox, slamming his fist into a nearby wall “I CANT BELIEVE I LET MYSELF BE MANIPULATED LIKE THIS”

Fox continued to smash his hand into the wall. Almost to the point of horribly brusing it. Falco grabbed his hand to stop him before he reached that point.

“We uh, we gotta' bigger problem here” yelled Falco

Indeed they did, as soon as Falco finished speaking, Fox realized that several security doors had begun to close across the hallway. A precaution that was meant to foil intruders on the gray fox was now being used against its inhabitants.

“Darn it!” Yelled Fox as the two began to run full bolt down the hallway as fast as they could. The security doors slamming shut behind them, inching closer and closer.

As the two made it to the end of the hallway, they slammed open the doors that led directly into the arwing bay. 

There, they saw Peppy, about to climb inside one of the Arwings with Slippy still in tow. The old hare noticed the two and impulsively pointed his blaster at them.

“GUYS!” Yelled Slippy

“Peppy! Stop!” yelled fox.

Peppys hand visibly shook. The events of the last half hour had obviously taken quite the toll on him.

“D-dont either of ya'all move a muscle....” commanded Peppy “I-I don't want to have to do anythin'!”

“Peppy....why!” asked Fox.

“Heh....” sighed Peppy “I suppose' I do owe ya'all at least an explanation...”

“I....I loved your father, Fox” Slippy said as he dipped his head down, tears beginning to well up in his eyes“ I joined the Starfox team not of my own volition...but because someone used him as a bargaining chip...”

“I” Peppy said as he took a few steps back “I couldn't refuse their offer...I had to do what I was told or-”

Another explosion rocked the ship, causing the ground to shake almost as if the ship would split in two at any second. The ship's announcement system spoke out of nearby speakers

“4 minutes till structural integrity collapses. Please, evacuate. I repeat. Please evacuate”

“I-gotta get going” yelled Peppy. “Please! I love ya'all like family....use ya Arwings and ge-”

“IF YA LOVE US LIKE FAMILY THEN LET SLIPPY GO!” Falco interrupted, almost yelling louder then the alarm that filled their ears. 

“I-I can't do that...I-i need him for.....well, I can't exactly go int-”

Falco stomped forwards towards Peppy. His hands clenched into fists.

Although Falco had quite honestly at times had been quite mean to Slippy, the idea of him being used like this filled him with intense anger. 

Falco walked forward, closer and closer, taking a step forward with every word he spoke

“PUT”

“SLIPPY”

“DOWN”

Peppy pointed his blaster at Falco. One arm firmly around Slippy, the other shaking wantonly as he tried to steady his blaster.

“P-please...I don't...I don't want to hurt any of ya'all!”

These words fell on deaf ears. As Falco began running full bolt towards Peppy. 

“Darn it!” screamed Peppy, throwing slippy aside and trying desperately to steady his blaster as Falco got closer and closer.

Peppy closed his eyes. Tears rushing down his face as he pulled the trigger. The loud sound of the blaster going off filling his ears.

It was as he opened his eyes. He saw Falco had been shot right on one of his arms. Smoke flowing outwards from where the blast had hit. However, Falco had not even seemingly registered that he had just been shot. Continuing to run towards Peppy. Almost as if he was powered by pure anger.

It was mere seconds before Falco was right in front of Peppy. Using the momentum he had gained from the run, Falco swung his fist directly  
into Peppy's face. Making the old hare fly backwards into a wall.

It was at this point, the energy that had motivated Falco to entirely ignore the pain that pulsed through his arm ran out. 

Falco yelled in agony as he fell to the floor. Almost instantly losing conciousness. As his vision blurred. He saw Peppy silently rise to his feet and crawl into his arwing. This was the last thing Falco saw before unconsciousness entirely consumed him.

Fox had just entirely stood there silently during this whole commotion. Something in his brain had broken and nothing about the scene he had seen unfold made any sense. It took Slippy shaking him back and forth and talking to him to bring Fox back to reality. 

“FOX!” yelled Slippy “PLEASE DO SOMETHING! H-HEEY! HEY!”

Fox shook his head back and forth, the sound of Peppys arwings engine gaining power phoning home how important it was that he did something now.

Fox sprung into action

“Help me load Falco into this arwing!” Said Fox, rushing towards one of the arwings that still stood idle in the bay.

“O-of course!” replied Slippy

In less than a minute the three had crammed themselves into a single Arwing. Fox frantically pushing various buttons in an attempt to get the ship to boot up as soon as possible. A synthesized voice speaking to him as he activated various systems

“G-diffuser system – Active”

Another synthizied voice filled Foxes ears, that of the alarm system he had heard before.

“Ship destruction in [2] minutes”

This made Fox speed up his process even more. Sweat dripping down his face as he attempted to get the Arwing to take off

“Engine bootup – 50 percent”

“Ship Destruction in [1] minute”

“Engine Bootup – 90 percent”

“Ship destruction in, 9, 8, 7, 6 5.....”

The intercom didn't even get a chance to finish, as a large explosion rocked the ship. Causing a white flash to fill the area around the gray fox as several more explosions engulfed the ship. It wasn't long until the ship had entirely fallen apart into an unrecognizable pile of debris. The place the Starfox team had long considered home had been ripped from them in a matter of minutes.


	9. Chapter 9

Falco slowly awoke. His eyes slowly adjusting to try and take in his surroundings as he felt a sharp burning pain in one of his arms. It didn't take him long to recall exactly how he ended up with a burn on his arm.

It was as his eyes finished adjusting, he realized he was laying down on a small green sofa. A young Lynx sitting on a small stool in front of the sofa, leaning over him and slowly bandaging his arm after seemingly having given his arm quite a bit of medical attention.

It didn't take long for Falco to realize who this was. It was Miyu. She had moonlighted with the Starfox team quite a bit pre-lylat wars but seemingly moved on to other ventures at some point.

Falco didn't consider this long, as the events that occured on the gray fox again began to fill his mind. He rose to a sitting position as quickly as he could. Pain flowing through his arm as he did.

“Whoa there buddy” Said Miyu in surprise “Yer really should be takin' it easy after yer incident!”

As much as he hated to admit it. She was right. He was in absolutely no state to really be doing much of anything. 

“Well, guess I owe ya one” Said Falco as he sat back in the sofa slowly. 

“Now yer better sit back and relax” said Miyu, as she rose from the stool “or there'll be trouble!” 

Miyu walked out of the small living room of the small apartment and into the kitchen to pack away some medical equipment. It was then that what was being broadcast on the living rooms cheap CRT TV caught Falco's attention.

“Today, General Pepper speaks on the matter of the tragic fate of the heroic Starfox team. Who all passed away yesterday” said the newscaster “It is likely the General intends to use the speech to announce a full-scale investigation around the circumstances of the destruction of the Star Foxes ship: The Gray Fox”

Falco sighed. He had a close call, yeah, but it was a bit too soon to be considering him dead, he thought. 

It was as Falco was mulling over this, that another thing struck his eye: Fox and Slippy were absolutely nowhere to be seen.

Miyu walked back into the room, grabbing the remote and turning off the television “Ain't been anything good on all day. All they seem to wanna yammer on about is you guys”

“Ay” said Falco, looking out of a nearby window at the setting sun “Speaking of us guys, where's the others decided to sneak off to?”

“Could ardly get a word outta fox as he left” replied Miyu, sitting down on a nearby chair “Slippy left to go pick up some hardware or somethin' tho.”

Falco leaned forward and decided to turn the conversation to something a little less related to the events of the past twenty-four hours. 

“So, whatcha been doin' since ya left our little team?” asked Falco.

“Oh yer know. Fey and I started up a small lil' ship repair a few blocks down. All that life'n'death stuff up in space wasn't really workin' out fer either of us, ya'know?”

“Ay, by the way.” Miyu said “speakin' of stuff that's been goin' on since we left yer lil rag tag group yer, er, wanna talk about stuff?”

“Whatcha mean?”

“Well” said Miyu, putting her hands together “Dat Slippy kiddo really appreciated whatcha did for him. Freein' him from gramps n all....and ya know how that boy likes to go over things in painsteakin' detail when he's excited bout something....”

“And??”

“And all I'm sayin is, if yer know much about my past, yer know I've also been there. And I guess what my point is: is that im ere for ya? Yeah?”

Falco deeply considered what she was talking about. He wouldn't mind at all having someone to talk about with some of the things that had been going through his mind lately. But he was pretty sure now wasn't the time. At least, that's the excuse he made to himself

“Thanks, I'll uh, I'll consider it”

Before the conversation could continue, the front door of the apartment flung open, Fey and Slippy walking inside. Fey held a huge bag of groceries, while Slippy held a box filled to the brim with various mechanical parts. Slippy almost dropped them on the floor upon noticing Falco was awake, but steadied himself and dumped the box on a nearby coffee table before rushing up to Falco and wrapping him up in a big vice like hug.

“FALCO!” Slippy weeped “I-I THOUGHT YOU WERE G-GONNA DIE FOR AWHILE THERE”

While Falco deeply appreciated the gesture. His burnt arm and ability to breathe surely didn't

“THANK YOU SO MUCH, I-I WAS S-SO SO SCARED...BUT T-THEN YOU SAVED ME...THANK.....THANK YOU!!!”

Falco gently patted Slippy on the shoulder. Both an attempt to show that the feelings were mutual and to try and regain the ability to breathe back. Thankfully. It worked on both fronts, as Slippy slowly stepped back, releasing Falco from his hug.

Now free from Slippy's death grip, Falco got to see another display of affection occur

“Good evening, darling” greeted Fey in her quite upper class accent, giving Miyu a gentle kiss on the cheek “I managed to acquire the ingredients for the chili you asked me to procure. I must say the sauce in particular seems particularly, low class, but if”

Miyu cut her off, kissing her smack dab in her lips

“I'm sure its all fine honey! Don't yer worry about a dang thing'!”

It was affection, both platonic and romantic that helped Falco keep going in spite of the events of the past day or so. Although he didn't know it yet. Affection was exactly the thing that was going to save him in the days to come.

It was as Falco considered this that he began to worry. Fox had not come back with the others. The longer he tried to ignore this worry. The worse it became. As hours passed and the sun set without Fox returning. It wasn't long before Falco had enough of this horrible feeling of worry in his stomach. And rose up from his chair to try and resolve it.


	10. Chapter 10

Peppy stood alone in a huge empty field. The sun had long since set and the grass which reached up to his waist blew against him as it got pushed around by the strong wind. He deeply sighed, his cheeks stained by hours worth of tears. The rain now only hiding it as he had left his arwing which stood landed near him.

This was a very nostalgic place for him. And it only made the cocktail of emotions he was already feeling even stronger. This was where he had met James. A man he loved deeply up until his death.

He pulled a tiny box out of one of his jacket pockets. Opening it, he saw a tiny wedding ring lay inside. A thing that was precious to him and he had taken with him everywhere since the day James had met his end.

However, Peppy wasn't just here to dwell on old memories. He had something he desperately needed to do. It would be harder without Slippy helping him out. But he had resolved to do it by himself. It was the least he could to do to try and make amends for what he had done to his family.

“Strange time for a walk” a familiar voice from behind him said, Startling the old Hare significantly, almost making him jump out of his skin. The wind blew heavily as he turned around to see who had said that.

His fear was confirmed when he saw General Pepper, standing just a little way away from him.

“But I suppose you were always the type to dwell on old memories” Pepper said as he took a few steps closer to the old hare.

“DONT YA TAKE A DARN STEP CLOSER!” yelled Peppy as he pulled out his blaster. Pointing it directly at Peppers head

“Aw, Peppy!” Said Pepper sarcastically as he put his hand on his chest, “I thought we were friends!”

“With you? Never”

“You break my heart! And after you agreed to work with me before so easily...:

Peppy tightened his grip on the trigger as the General took a few steps closer.

“WHAT DID I JUST SAY TO YA!”

“I really didn't think you'd take the fall after Falco found himself falsely accused, though. You really do have a good heart in you after all, don't you?” 

“ARE YA MOCKIN' ME!? OF COURSE I COULDN'T LET ANYTHIN' HAPPEN TO THE BOY! HE'S FAMILY!”

“And it's that good heart that led you to stand in front of me here, your mission failed.”

“I'VE HAD ENOUGH!” Screamed Peppy as he slammed his finger down on his blaster, closing his eyes. One second went by and then another, and yet no sound had occurred. Opening his eyes, Peppy indeed confirmed that the Blaster hadn't fired.

By the time he realized the General now stood right in front of him, it was too late. With his palm open he slammed his hand directly forward into Peppy's stomach. The sound of impact echoing throughout the field as Peppy flew forward, smacking into a nearby fence.

As Peppy slumped down onto the ground, he heard the General walk closer towards him, his boots making loud squishing noises against the mud with every step.

The General squatted down in front of him, putting one of his fingers to a small intercom before whispering to talk to whoever was on the other side.

“Yes, yes. Yes I got him. Yeah. That little tracker idea of yours worked wonders. Yes, of course. I'll make him disappear.”

“You really should learn to not rely on these so much” Said Pepper as he Grabbed Peppy's blaster from where it had fallen nearby “You never know when technology might act up on you these days”

“You....” moaned Peppy as Pepper pointed the blaster directly as Peppy's head. It wasn't long before he fell unconscious. The rain pelting heavily against his body. Peppy had not only failed the mission he had been given by Pepper. But the mission he had given himself upon leaving the Gray Fox.

Fox walked through the streets of a small block somewhere in Cornera. Earlier in the morning he had left Falco at an old friend's apartment. But he knew he couldn't return there. He couldn't bear to face Falco again after all the unjustified doubt he had thrown his way. 

“What a joke of a commander I turned out to be” thought Fox, putting a cigarette into his mouth. 

He pulled out a lighter and lit the cigarette. This was an old habit he hadn't indulged in since before he enrolled to a pilot academy. And one he hated himself for bringing back. But he couldn't think of any other way to deal with the stress that filled his body.

Fox continued to walk through the street. Neon signs illuminating the world around him in a tint of green, red, and yellows amongst other colors. It wasn't long before he reached his destination: The Cornera Den. An old bar he used to frequent. As he walked to the front door he hoped the person he had called to meet here hadn't bailed on him. With a deep breath, he swung the door open. And a nostalgic sight he hadn't seen in years filled his vision.

The warm lights, the sea of wooden, ill maintained tables, the strong smell of various alcohols and the often profanity filled cacophony of conversations that filled the room. Fox had frequented this place when he was still in the education system. He sat down on one of the stools in the bar and waited for someone with whom he could make his order known.


	11. Chapter 11

It was later in the night. Fox had sat in a small table in the corner of the bar and had downed a few drinks. Yet another habit he hadn't indulged in for years that had now suddenly returned. He had begun to wonder if his contact had decided to throw a no-show. But leaving the bar currently felt like an unappealing prospect, so there he stayed.

Thankfully, 10 minutes later he found his worries seemingly unfounded, as a dear friend and trusted ally of the Starfox team entered the bar: Bill Grey.

Bill took a little while to scope out the room before he eventually noticed Fox sitting in his corner. Throwing out a little wave before heading his way.

Before long, Bill had ordered a drink of his own. And after some small talk, Fox began to cut to the chase.

“Bill, I'm gonna need to call in that favor?”

“Favor, dude???” asked Bill, already a little intoxicated

“You know, me and the team DID kinda save your ass back there”

Bill let out a loud, boisterous laugh that filled the room, almost drowning out the sea of other conversations that filled the room.

“Ah, I guess ya did!” chuckled Bill, patting foxes shoulder with extreme force. Fox almost began to worry he'd break his arm at one point. Thankfully he stopped before that point and leaned back in his chair

“Sure! Anythin' for my old pal, dude!” Bill said as he raised a bottle to his lips and took a deep chug before putting it back down “one question though”

Bill looked left and right to make sure nobody was listening in, before leaning close to fox.

“What's the deal with you apparently bein' dead, dude?” Bill whispered, “Are ya a ghost? Because if you're a ghost you've gotta te-”

“I'm not a ghost!” Fox replied, cutting off Bill “There was a, uh, incident on the Gray Fox”

“I'll say dude! What the heck happened!?”

Fox explained the events that had happened on the gray fox as best as he could in the span of a few minutes. Bill seemed quite surprised at various details, the part where General Pepper was seemingly behind the whole thing in particular seemed to surprise him. Fox gave him a few minutes to digest the information, silently watching him to try and gauge any reactions.

“Well dude. I'm behind ya all the way!” said Bill with enthusiasm “Just tell me what I gotta do!”

“I know you've gotten a few...promotions as a result of the Lylat wars...I need you to keep an eye on Pepper for me.”

“Can do dude!” replied Bill. “Me and my boys don't have any love for that bummer of a general anyway.”

Fox and Bill slowly returned to more casual conversation. Topics ranging from their time at school together to recent advances in arwing units filled their discussions.

Fox missed this. Fox missed having someone to talk to like this. Something about Bill just made him really easy to talk to. Sadly, it wasn't long before Bill rose to leave.

“Well, I gotta get going. People are gonna start noticin' if I'm a no-show for so long”

It was as Bill was about to leave that the sound of something dropping filled the floor near where bill was standing. Fox couldn't get a good look at the object that had fallen as by the time he realized what was going on it had long since gone under the table

“DANG! Dropped my pencil!” Bill said as he scrambled to grab whatever it was that had fallen under the table. It wasn't long before he had found it, stuffing the pencil into one of his pockets before Fox could get a good look at it.

“Well, I'll get back to ya soon!” said Bill as he turned around to leave. Fox hoped he got to see him again sooner rather than later. Although the Starfox team was who he considered family. Things had become complex lately and it was nice to have a friend without such complications attached to them.

Bill had long left the bar and Fox was about to leave himself when an unexpected complication swung through the door. Fox's heart sank as he realized who the man who had just waltz'd into the bar was.

Falco had wandered outside the corneian streets for several hours, the cold temperature of the winter months requiring him to wrap up warm. A requirement he had entirely ignored. Ignored but after two hours out here, had regretted.

He had kept to himself and tried not to engage much with anyone since, A Starfox member who was supposed to be dead out and about probably wouldn't be good for keeping his profile down.

It was then Falco noticed something on the other side of the street. A small TV store with a window filled to the brim: one of them was on. Falco slowly walked over to the other side of the street to watch whatever was being broadcast.

“We continue our campaign to show that Scrombiss IS right for you and all of the universe! We come to you live to-”

Suddenly, the broadcast cut out, static filling the small crt. Falco sighed and was about to turn around when the TV suddenly cut into a different broadcast.

General Pepper stood in front of a conference room filled to the brim with people. Bright flashes of cameras filling the room as he spoke into a microphone on-top of a podium. He was already in the middle of his speech. 

“We are already in the early stages of an investigation into the tragic loss of the Star Fox team. And we have strong evidence to believe that this was an attack by a until now unheard of cell of former Venom soldiers. As such we will be assembling a task force to investigate and deal with any-”

The screen became engulfed with static once again. And Falco sighed. Something about what he had heard from that speech had given him a bad feeling. It was as he had turned around to leave he heard another voice behind him.

“Out for a walk are we?”

Falco turned around only to find no-one stood behind him. But it wasn't long until he realized where the voice was coming from.

An image of General Pepper, lounging on a giant extravagant red chair and drinking wine filled every single one of the CRTs. Falco's heart dropped as he realized this was live.


	12. Chapter 12

Fox watched as the man walked over to the bar. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice Fox as the sea of people in the establishment seemingly worked as cover. He watched as he ordered a drink and sat at one of the bars many stools.

Something about this mans appearance here and now seemed a little too convenient to Fox. The fact he had decided to appear at this particular planet, at this particular city and go into this particular bar at THIS particular time seemed way more than a little fishy to Fox.

Taking a final sip from his bottle, he figured he'd have to pull a dine and dash if he didn't want this situation to get out of hand. He looked around the bar as he began to push a series of actions vaguely resembling a plan into motion.

He rose from his chair and began to walk towards the bathroom, keeping his head down and sticking to the crowd as best as he could to avoid being spotted. Before long he had swung open the bathroom door and entered his destination. Thankfully, nobody currently seemed to be inside. And even better: there was a small window that lay wide open.

In just a split second, Fox got to work. Finding a nearby stool. It was cheap, old, and made of wood that had overall probably seen better days. But Fox didn't exactly have many other options.

He placed the stool as quietly as he could under the window before slowly stepping upon it. After a minute of desperately trying to gain any sort of grasp on the window. It slowly began to dawn on him that reaching the window and crawling out of it was a fruitless endeavor. 

It was as he stepped off the stool to consider other options that the bathroom door swung open and in stepped the very man he was trying to avoid: Wolf O'Donnell.

Meanwhile, Falco stood in front of the countless CRTs that had filled up with the image of General Peppers face.

“Yeah, I'm out for an evening walk. AND I'm busy!” Falco said, replying to the Generals earlier question “Whatcha want?”

“Please, I think you will find it, beneficial, to not take that tone with me. After all, I-”

“What, ya gonna say my life hangs in the balance or somethin'? C'mon man. Save it”

“Now Listen. You'd do well to-”

It honestly filled Falco with anxiety that this conversation with the general was even somehow happening. But he absolutely didn't want to show it.

“I mean c'mon man! I know ya' gettin' on a bit in age but this is no time to be talkin' to ghosts? I'm dead! Remembuh?” 

“You really WILL be dead if you don't LISTEN to me, young man”

Falco shrugged him off and began to turn to walk away, when the general said something that struck a nerve: 

“I'm willing to let you and your team walk away, as long as you don't interfere with my, shall I say, future endeavors, But I see I'll need to do something a little extra to hammer it home to a dolt like yourself.”

The general sat back in his chair as he poured more wine into his now empty glass

“You're going to want to check in on the excuse of a man you call your commander. I believe he's hanging around the Cornera Den? a horrible, disgusting little dive but I guess that's all he can afford with his meager paycheck”

“WHAT DID YA JUST SAY?” Screamed Falco as he turned around, enraged by the suggestions that were being made “I SWEAR IF YA TOUCH HIM YA'LL....”

His yells fell on deaf ears, as static filled the screens once again before cutting back into regular broadcasts. Falco felt dread fill his body. And despite his arm complaining through pulses of pain. Falco began to run towards where he remembered the bar being as fast as he could.

It wasn't long before he had turned a final corner and now stood just down the street from where the bar stood. 

Falco felt despair fill his body as his eyes slowly processed what he was seeing. There the bar stood, flames engulfing its very structure and causing smoke to fill the street. The mere sight of this made Falco feel like screaming.

Wolf slowly took a few steps towards Fox. The atmosphere in the room growing tenser and tenser every time one of his boots hit the floor. It wasn't long before Fox had enough.

“Hold it RIGHT THERE!” Fox yelled, pulling out his Blaster “I don't know WHAT you're doing here but don't you dare take another step”

To Fox's surprise. Wolf almost instantly held his hands up. Fox had expected him to almost instantly try some sort of trickery or just try to shoot back. But this was a weirdly passive move based on his previous experiences with him.

“Listen, foxy-boy” whispered Wolf “I know how this might look. But listen' to what I have to say to you first at least”

“Bullshit” replied Fox, clicking his blaster into “lethal” mode “As if I'd listen to a killer like you!”

“Oh as if you're any better?” replied Wolf, defying the blaster pointed by taking yet another step forward “Do you ever think about-”

“SHUT UP” yelled fox, cutting him off “LEAVE NOW OR I'LL”

“Dangit kid, I didn't want to have'ta wait for this cue. But in two seconds you'll have a reason to listen!”

Indeed, within two seconds, the sound of several blasters going off could be heard from the room Wolf had just entered from.

“What the HELL” yelled Fox “Friends of yours?”

“Absolutely not! Look...just trust me for 2 seconds and take a peek outside!” 

Fox considered this an incredibly unappealing idea. Mainly because doing anything Wolf told him to do just seemed like a bad idea on principle. But, Fox did want to see what on earth was happening in the bar, so he reluctantly walked over to the bathroom door, silently swinging it open a little to take a peek.

Fox's stomach churned in horror as he saw four men fully dressed in Cornerian special forces outfits. Masks obscuring their faces. Two of them were doing their best to act threatening to get everyone out. While the other two stood around a table, setting up some kind of explosive.

“I SAID! EVERYBODY OUT!” screamed one of the men, as the last few of the patrons rushed out of the bar through the front door. Fox knew he'd have to do something or the bar would end up in smoke


	13. Chapter 13

Fox and Wolf watched through the hole in the door as the men finished up setting up the explosive. 

“Ok, Clear out!” yelled one of the men upon ensuring that no patrons remained in the bar “This should send a message well enough!”

The soldiers promptly unlocked then bolted through a fire escape. Now leaving the bar entirely empty, aside from Fox, Wolf, and of course the now ticking time bomb they had found basically in their laps.

Ensuring nobody else remained in the bar by surveying the surroundings. Fox quickly swung open the door with Wolf steadily following behind him. Almost instantly, he ran to the fire escape to see if it would budge, unfortunately, his attempts proved fruitless after pulling on it as hard as he could more times than was necessary. Swearing under his breath, Fox rushed over to the front door. Once again, fruitlessly trying to get it opened before banging on the door as hard as he could.

It was as he turned that he saw Wolf, standing near the table with the bomb, deeply staring into it, his hand resting under his chin as he was deep in thought.

“Well, you got any suggestions, genius?” asked fox as he walked slowly towards Wolf. Ensuring that he wasn't about to pull any tricks on him.

“Yeah” replied Wolf, surveying his surroundings as he paused for a second as if to construct what he wanted to say in his brain “We get the hell out of here!”

Wolf rushed to one of the bathroom doors, obviously recalling the escape Fox had attempted to make in there. It was as he swung open the door he turned around to see Fox just standing there, deep in thought as he leaned over the bomb.

“Don't just stand there!” yelled Wolf “We have to get a move on now or-”

“I'm not going to leave this bar to just burn!” yelled Fox in response, “I refuse to let them succeed with whatever it is they hope to achieve here!”

“God damn it boy.” Wolf sighed as he watched Fox begin to attempt to pull off one of the panels “Fine! I guess I don't have any choice!” 

Wolf slowly walked back over the table, joining Fox in leaning over the strange square bomb that audibly ticked with every passing second.

“So what's the plan, Captain Genius?”

“Well obviously we take apart this thing and defuse it?” replied Fox, turning his head to look at Wolf “You got a coin?”

“I sure do, take care of it.” Wolf said as he flicked a coin in the air “This babies a collectors item so for the love of god take care of it!”

Fox wordlessly grabbed the coin with a swipe of his hand as it fell downwards. Using it to take apart a few screws that held a metal plate in place with one hand, while he put his finger to a transmitter on his ear with the other.

“W-wh-” stuttered a voice on the other voice of the transmitter “F-Fox!”

“Listen Slipp-”

“W-we've been tryin' to g-g-get a hold of y-y-ou for hours!” yelled slippy “t-this is a-a- a very bad time to b-be going on by yo-yourself!!”

“Hey Slippy” replied Fox, cutting Slippy off

“Y-yeah?”

“You took bomb defusal classes, didn't you?”

“y-yes I d-d-did....but..w-why are you bringing that up n-n-n-now?” 

“Because I'm standing in front of a live example currently, buddy”

“WHAT?!”

“Yeah”

“A-ARE YOU K-KIDDING ME?”

“Nope”

“W-we've o-only be-been on this planet a D-DAY and you A-A-A-ALREADY found a B-B-BOMB?”

“Yep”

“Fox, t-that's....” Slippy paused for a second “FOX YOU FOUND A REAL LIFE BOMB? HECK YEAH! WITH ME HERE YOU'LL DEFUSE THAT THING FOR SURE!”

Fox was taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm, but at the very least was glad to have Slippy on his side. 

“W-whats the c-code on the si-side?”

“RBG92021-0” replied Fox as he quickly glanced over to get a good look at the markings that revealed the bombs code.

“O-O-Ok d-do you have the main metal pan-panel unsc-screwed?”

“Just doing that now” replied Fox, as he finally unfinished unscrewing the last of the screws. Causing the plate to fall down on the table, revealing a sea of wires. The wires in particular formed quite the rainbow of colors. An unusually fun palette for a device that would rip them to pieces if they made one wrong move. “Alright, unscrewed”

As this conversation unfolded, Wolf pulled up a nearby chair and pulled out a cigar, lighting it with a lighter a patron had probably left behind.

As Wolf sat down in the chair, Fox continued his conversation with Slippy

“Ok do you s-see the r-red, gr-green, blue, yellow, pink, purple, and w-white wi-wires?”

“Yeah, I can see them”

“O-ok. D-do y-you ha-have somet-thing you can cut the-them w-with?”

Fox turned to Wolf “Just so you know: I don't owe you shit, but do you have some pliers or someth-”

Wolf Pulled out a combat knife from one of his jacket pockets, twisting it around before presenting it by the handle to Fox, who couldn't help but be a LITTLE impressed. Ok he was very impressed but he'd probably never admit that. 

He grabbed the knife without a word and began to point it towards the wires.

“I do. What now?”

“Well, n-n-now you-you've gotta cu-cut them in-in this-or-order: R-red, green, pi-pink, pu-purple, b-blue, y-yellow, and whi-white”

“Ok, I'm on it” Said Fox.

Fox was about to start cutting the wires before Slippy piped up again

“W-WAIT!”

“What?”

“Y-you ab-absolutely m-must NOT cut them in the or-order o-of R-red, green, pi-pink, pu-purple, b-blue, WHITE and YELLOW, th-though...som-something particularly bad happens whe-”

“What?”

“You absolutely must NOT cut them in the or-order of G-green, pi-pink and pur-” Slippy paused for a second “W-wait I think I got that wrong, g-gimmie a sec-”

Fox could hear the flicking of pages from the other side of his transmitter. A sound that did little to ease fox's nerves. 

“O-ok...w-wait...wh-what pag-page was it again”

It was then that the bomb let out a loud beep and began to speak in a synthizied voice

“[Five minutes remaining. Tampering detected: Speed increase operation confirmed]

The ticking of the bomb grew faster as it began to rhythmically beep.

“GODAMN IT, SLIPPY!”

“AH! THIS IS THE PAGE! YOU GOTTA CUT THEM IN THE ORDER OF-”

“For the love of GOD give that here!” 

Slippy didn't get a chance to continue as Wolf grabbed his knife back from Foxes hand

“We're gettin nowhere with this!” Yelled Wolf as he cut all the wires inside the bomb with one quick swipe. Fox's mouth was agape in disbelieve as soon as he saw this happen. Even more so when he heard the bomb say “System Defused” in its little synthizied voice.

Fox sat back in a chair in sudden relief as sweat poured down his face. He rubbed his temples and slowly looked down at the floor to attempt to process what had even just happened. 

“F-fox!” yelled Slippy “A-are y-you still there?”

“Yeah, yeah. The bombs defused. Don't worry” 

“Wh-what? H-how did-”

“I'll let you know all about it when I get back. I'm going to sign off for now”

“A-alright. St-tay safe”

Fox pushed a button on his transmitter, ceasing the transmission. He looked down at Wolf, who had sat back down to continue smoking his cigar” 

“How'd you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Defuse that thing?”

Wolf smirked “Well, I guess you could say I have somewhat of an experience with-”

Wolf was cut off as the bomb again sprung to life. A small screen and camera almost jumping out of it like a jack out of a box. On the screen the two saw their now mutual enemy: General Pepper.

“Very impressive! I see you two managed to make short work of my little gift to you two!” Pepper chuckled as he poured yet more wine into his glass. “But I guess that's to be expected from two legendary space mercenaries”

“Pepper...” scowled Wolf, clenching his fists as hard as he could

“Oh wolfie boy! There's no need to be angry at little old me! In fact I'm here to give you two a reward for your efforts!”

the two turned in surprise as the previously locked fire escape swung open. Giving the two a way to leave.

“You see! You really shouldn't be so distrusting of others! You can leave whenever you like!”

General Pepper took an intentionally long, loud sip of his wine before putting the glass down as slowly as he could

“As long as you do so within the next ten seconds!” 

The screen cut to a countdown timer, ticking down from 10, as the bomb once again sprung to life.

“God damn it! Run!” Yelled Wolf as the two scrambled towards the fire exit as quickly as they could. In the hopes that they could make it far away enough from the resulting explosion to remain unharmed. 

It wasn't long before the bomb had gone off. And the bar had begun to be engulfed in flames.


	14. Chapter 14

Falco stood, still speechless and motionless as several fire engines rushed around the corner, beginning to hose water all over the bar in the hopes of putting out the fire that had engulfed it. He could only pray that his dear friend was not in fact currently inside as Pepper had suggested.

Falco sighed, visibly shaking and holding back tears as he turned around and started walking back the way he came. Being spotted here, particularly when he was supposed to be dead, probably wouldn't have been a good look.

It was then that rain began to pelt down on him and the pavement. The soundscape this created being the only thing to calm down and center his now chaotic and frantic headspace.

Suddenly, his transmitter beeped to life. Pressing its small button down, part of him hoped to hear his friend on the other side.

“Yeah? Whatcha want?” said Falco into the transmitter as he continued to walk down the street. trying his best to conceal how torn he felt inside

“Falco, Buddy! Listen' up!'' Miyu replied "Managed to get a space set aside for you and yer boys in my and Fay's lil garage! why dontcha pop on over?”

“Sure I'll.... be there''

"Don't keep our butts waitin' birdy! everybody else is already over ere!”

Falco heart felt a sudden relief wash over him. “Everyone else?” he thought? Without another word he rushed over to where he had been previously told the garage was.

He soon found himself standing on the other side of the road from where the garage was located. Taking a deep breath and trying to calm his anxiety, Falco decided to take a way in from the back alley he had been told about to avoid raising suspicion. the doors would be unlocked so he figured there would be no harm in being extra careful.

It was as he turned the corner into the alley, that he saw something that deeply concerned him: In the end of the alley, right next to the door, stood Wolf O'Donnel, facing away from him and smoking a Cigar. Falco leaped into action, hiding behind a nearby dumpster in an attempt to both conceal himself and keep an eye on his target. He'd need to be extremely careful and on the ball if he wanted to outsmart him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fox and Wolf rushed out of the fire escape, desperately trying to outrun the bomb. It was as the two heard the device loudly begin to beep that Wolf put the only plan he could think of into action. Grabbing Fox by his jacket as hard as he could and then tossing him into a nearby dumpster and within milliseconds jumping in after him, slamming the dumpsters door behind him as quickly as he could. 

“JEEZ!” Yelled Fox in surprise “THE DUMPSTER? WHAT ARE YOU THINK-”

Fox was not given a chance to finish, as soon a loud explosion from outside violently began to rock the dumpster around. Causing the two who had huddled inside to be violently shaken around. This seemed to go on for hours as the two got thrown around like rag dolls. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the shaking ceased. The two had to take a second to get their bearings before realizing that the dumpster that had acted as their shelter now lay on its side.

It was then, at this incredibly inconvenient time, that Foxes transmitter that lay on his ear began to beep, signifying that someone had considered now, of all times, a good time to call him.

“Uhghf” groaned Fox as he pressed a small button that lay on the device “Ye-yeah you've got Fox”

“A-are y-you o-ok” stuttered Slippy

“Yeah yeah. We're fine!”

“W-w-we just sa-saw the n-news and w-we assumed the wo-worse”

“Not the first time I've been in the news lately huh. Guess the media loves me.”

“W-well, its m-more about the b-b-bar then it-it is you, F-Fox.”

Fox felt Wolf's eyes glare into him. He knew he had probably ran his patience thin as soon as this call began 

“Listen, Slippy, we'll head back. I'll call you in a bi-”

“W-what do y-y-you mean “we”?”

“Look, I'll explain it all when we're back”

“W-well, o-okay....”

“W-WAIT!” piped up Slippy, as Fox's finger lay just an inch away from the button on his transmitter “M-Miyu s-suggested we-we meet up at, h-her garage...i-is that okay?”

“Yeah! Gotcha!” replied Fox, turning off his transmitter before Slippy could get another word in. It was then that Fox began to get back to work on his current situation.

With a loud groan that Wolf could only assume was the result of a mix of pain and exhaustion, Fox kicked the dumpster door open, rolling out of it before picking himself up off the pavement.

As he rose to his feet, Fox realized that the explosion had helped the dumpster fly all the way outside of the alley and out onto the pavement near the front of the bar. If a crowd hadn't already gathered at the bars front, there would probably be more eyes currently thrown at this dumpster that just flew out of an alleyway.

“Jeez” Said Fox, as he watched Wolf drag himself out of the dumpster and pull himself onto his feet “You're nuts! I can't believe you made that work”

“Yeah, well” Said Wolf as he put a new Cigar in his mouth “Sometimes in my line of work you've gotta learn to think on the fly, Foxy-boy”

“When we're out of here, you're going to tell me what the heck you're up to.” replied Fox as he looked around, noticing that several police cars had rolled up to the building “but for right now we've really gotta work on splitting!” 

The two quickly made themselves scarce. Ensuring nobody had spotted this incredibly odd duo As Fox cut through the streets, rapidly approaching his destination.


	15. Chapter 15

Fox swung open the front door of the garage. To reveal a darkly lit room. The only source of real light coming from a light on the ceiling that hung over a small round and wooden table. Present at the table were Slippy and Fay. Miyu was nearby, leaning in front of a bike and adjusting something on the underside with a wrench. The group turned to face Fox as he began to walk into the room.

“F-F-Fox!” stuttered slippy “W-what t-t-took you?”

“Yes!” chimed in Fay “One should know better then to keep their hosts waiting!”

“You seen the news?” replied Fox as he sat down on the table with the others “Had kinda a, uh, a run in”

“I'll say!” Miyu said as she rose to stand and wiped sweat from her brow “Even that's kinda a spectacular run-in by my standards!”

“That's the funny thing. This wasn't a regular run-in”

“I-I-'ll s-say....I-its not often y-you ru-run into a bomb i-in a bar....”

“That's not what I mean. Cornerian Special Forces were the ones who planted that thing!”

“That's quite'ah bold move from them....” replied Miyu as she pulled out a chair to join the group “Those' dudes ave been passive as hell since that whole Andross dealo”

“S-so w-we can a-assume P-P-Peppers g-gonna be o-out in full force?”

“One would think so. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the kind of gentleman to tie up all of ones loose en-”

Fay cut off her sentence as a loud slam filled her ears, the group turned to see what the source of the noise was. And it wasn't long before they discovered Falco was the one who had slammed the back door open. Along with him came quite a surprising sight: Wolf'Odonnel tightly wrapped around one of his arms in front of him. And a blaster pointed at his head.

“Ay guys! Sorry I'm late! Managed to bring ya a present though!” Falco said before shoving Wolf out of his grasp and into the middle of the room “Found this dirtbag creepin' around outside!”

“HEY! TRYTA SNEAK INTO MY GARAGE, WILL YA?” Yelled Miyu, already off her chair. 

“YEAH!” Falco chimed in “USE THE FRONT DOOR NEXT TIME YA SCUMBAG!”

“If you'd just Listen to me for two seconds instead of YELLING you'd understa-”

“YER TRYIN' TO MESS WITH ME?” Yelled Miyu, cracking her knuckles “YA WANNA SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO DUDES WHO MESS WITH ME?”

Miyu was probably about to bury her fist right into Wolf's face. That was, until fox interjected

“He....He's with me”

“HE'S WHAT? YER KIDDIN' RIGHT?”

Unfortunately, while Wolf wasn't about to have any fists buried in his face any time soon. It was likely that if Fox didn't explain himself as soon as possible, he probably would. If Miyu's rage twisted face was anything to go by.

“Look, I don't know WHAT his motivations are. But he DID help me out back at the bar. And I am curious. So why don't we give him a chance to explain himself?”

“Finally, some reason!” Wolf sighed in relief as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes “Now, to begin with-”

“You've got one minute” Continued fox, cutting him off “Otherwise it's back to the plan A my coleques appear to have cooked up”

Miyu cracked her knuckles again, with worrying enthusiasm. And Falco leaned back on a nearby wall, his hand reaching towards his Blaster and a smirk crawling over his face.

Wolf sighed. But the group had the impression it wasn't one of relief this time around.

“To begin with...Pepper betrayed US too” Replied Wolf as he cautiously looked around the room “That asshole Pigma was a mole and he figured NOW would be a genius time to turn on us”

“Betrayal is quite unbecoming of his public persona” Fay chimed in, picking up what appeared to be a tea cup “It seems our military compatriot has quite a few secrets”

Wolf suddenly flung out a folder filled to the brim with documents onto the table from where he was standing with almost stunning accuracy

“Oh, you'd be surprised. That man has several closets full of skeletons”

“Which brings me to my next point” continued Wolf as Fox opened the folder and began to flick through its ridiculous amounts of pages “I have reason to believe Andrew and Leon are alive. As well as Pigma's old buddy: Peppy”

Fox and Slippy turned their eyes to Wolf with extreme interest. The two had deeply worried about Peppy since his disappearance. But had so far had no chance to act on it.

“Ya bettah have a lead on pops” replied Falco, now crossing his arms “Your time is almost up and my trigger finger is gettin' itchy”

“Those documents detail a black site on Aquas that ol' general dumbass has been runnin' for quite some time. The rest of my boys and I compiled that information when we ran jobs for him. For insurance, of course.”

Wolf walked over to the table and began to lean over it. Practically inches away from Fox's face.

“Andrew, Leon, and probably Peppy are locked up tight in that black site. And you need MY help to gain access to it!”

Fox considered this deeply as he made eye contact with Wolf. There was something about his stare that encaptured the young Fox that he couldn't at all put his finger on. Within a few seconds, he had come to his decision.

“Alright. I guess you did help me out in the bar” replied Fox as he rested his legs on the table “And you're our only real lead aside from these documents. So you can stay...for now.”

Fox swore he could see visible disappointment on Miyu's face as he uttered those words.

Wolf pulled a chair out and sat on the table. His shoulders slumping in relief upon realizing he probably wasn't going to end up with his teeth kicked in. At least for tonight.

“There's one thing I don't get though.” Falco asked, as he began to walk towards the table “How did'ya know where to find ol' foxy over there?”

Fay stood up from her chair and began to walk towards Miyu. Based on her earlier expressions, she didn't seem to particularly appreciate feet on her table or the ill-kept merc that now sat next to her. But it at least conviently freed up a chair for Falco to sit on.

“Oh, that's simple” replied Wolf as Falco sat down next to him “General asshat has eyes almost everywhere”

“What?”

“Have you never LOOKED at how many cameras there are all over this god forsaken planet? All I had to do was intercept Concerian special forces transmissions and figurin ' out where ol' Foxy boy over there was easy”

“Can someone please just call me Fox.”

“You're lucky” said Wolf as he leaned into the table “As far as I can tell this little place is right in the middle of one of the few blind spots in this city”

“A-a- ca-camera n-network li-like that ex-exists?”

“It doesn't just stop on this planet either”

Heaviness hit the air over this revelation. If Pepper had this expansive a system to the point of spanning multiple planets, what were their chances of going against him?

“T-then, then ho-how are we e-even all s-still al-alive?”

“Such a simpleton. Do you think Pepper sees value in you being dead? No. You'd be much more useful to have leverage over and potentially manipulate. This is exactly how he operates”

“For cryin' out loud” responded Falco to the knowledge he had just been burdened with “That freakin' loser got in touch with me and I couldn't figure out why he just let me go till now!” 

“I figured he got in touch with one of you at some point. Anyway” Wolf Said before rising from his chair “I have places I need to be”

“Wait” Fox said rose up from his chair himself, and leaned over the table “Where do you think you're going?”

“I have some digging I need to do” Wolf replied as he pulled a cigar out of his pocket

“Fine. I'll give you three days tops to be back here with something relevant”

“Tch. Don't underestimate me, boy. I'll get it to you in two”

As Wolf left the garage through the very same door he had been forcefully shoved through. A dead silence began to hang over the room. Tonight had been an eventful one. And everyone involved needed time to process it.


	16. Chapter 16

Hours had passed since the groups encounter with Wolf O'Donnel and the information he had offered them. The garage had remained mostly silent since then, aside from Fox flipping through the folder filled to the brim as he sat at the table alone. Every page inside seemed to bring up some new incriminating thing Pepper had at least some hand in making happen. Most of it centering around the Aquas blacksite: A perfect place to contain whoever he wanted with little worry. As a planet covered in water allowed little avenue for escape.

Fox rested his head in one of his hands. He had been reading these documents for a few hours at this point in the hope of finding some exploitable weakness to the blacksite, but nothing had caught his eye and all the read had served to do was depress him so far.

It was as he pulled out a page on the blacksites water system that he decided he had enough for tonight. And after haphazardly shoving all the documents back into the folder and leaving it on the table, Fox rose to go to the back room for some rest.

As he put his hands in his pockets and began to walk to the room, Falco, who stood leaning against the garage's brick wall, caught sight of him.

“Ay, Foxy-boy! Can I have a word?” He greeted.

“Oh? Sure, what's up?”

“Listen, ya know I'm not one to worry” he lied “But the way ya ran off on ya own today isn't really a fittin' way for a leader of all things to be actin'!”

“Yeah I....gotcha” replied Fox, mostly dodging the conversation as he continued to walk past Falco and into the back room where Slippy was sleeping.

Falco sighed. It was one thing to be acting like this back when nothing was going on. But when so much was on the line it began to grate on Falco's nerves quite a bit. He shook his head and decided to not dwell on it for the rest of the night. 

It was as he was about to step outside for some air that Miyu swung open the back door and entered the garage. With a large plastic bag hanging from one of her hands.

“Oh! Heya birdy!” Miyu greeted “Yer just who I wanted to see!”

“Yeah?” Falco replied, turning his head to look at her “Whatcha need?”

“Just sit yer keister on the table and ya'll find out!”

“Do I gotta?” 

“C'mon! Just play along!”

Falco sighed and reluctantly began to walk towards the table. He figured arguing about it would probably just be a pain he currently didn't really feel like having. In a short time, Falco had sat down in the chair and Miyu stood on the other side of the table, putting the bag filled to the brim onto it.

“Got some supplies for ya! Why dontcha take a look!”

Falco reluctantly pulled the bag closer to him to take a look. And what he discovered made his heart fill with joy.

Inside lay a pile of various makeup supplies, Mascara, Lipstick, nail polish, if you thought of it, it was probably there.

At the sight of this, Falco considered that maybe Miyu's line about “Understanding what he was going through” might of had more accuracy to it.

“T-thanks....” Stuttered Falco as he dragged the bag and put it under the table. “I uh...I appreciate it”

Falco was about to rise off the table and excuse himself, when Miyu gestured for him to stay there.

“Oh, I'm not done with ya yet!” Said Miyu as she began to walk around to the back of Falco's chair.

It was then, that Falco began to feel a brush gently go through his head feathers. Grooming wasn't something Falco often had time for. And yet something about the feeling of the brush made him feel comfortable and nostalgic. 

After half an hour had passed, and Falco had almost dozed off in comfort multiple times, Miyu pulled out a small mirror and put it in front of Falco's face to reveal that his hair had been combed into a sort of pixie cut. Falco was ecstatic over this sight. The issues he had with his own reflection again slightly dulled with this slight change. He'd never actually do it but he honestly wanted to hug Miyu right at that moment. 

Somewhere else in the Galaxy, a single man sat alone in a jail cell. The only thing illuminating him was the moon shining through the bars of an incredibly small, rectangle shaped window. As he sat on his bed, he looked down in contempt and anger. Him? In jail? He was supposed to have the whole galaxy under his thumb and yet now all he found under his command was this small jail cell. And even then, as he looked over to the empty bed on the other side of the room, he realized that he didn't have company.

He clenched his fists. They couldn't contain him in these walls...they wouldn't!

However, as if to answer his wishes, the door to his cell swung open.

“You got a roomate, monkey boy!” yelled one of the guards as they shoved an old and quite tired looking hare into his room. As the door slammed behind him and the two locked eyes. It didn't take either of them long to realize who their new roommate was....


	17. Chapter 17

A newly found tension that was almost heavy enough it could be physically felt could be felt in the small jail cell. In some circumstances, its original occupant would have considered a roomate a useful resource to have. In this case though? He considered it quite the bother.

The man rose from his bed, eying up the old hare as he paced around without saying a word, maintaining eye contact at all times.

“Look", the old hare said “I've hadda rough' night and I don't really feel like dealin' with ya. So just lemme rest, ya'all.”

The hare began to walk towards the bed and towards the younger-looking monkey. Only to find him physically blocking his attempts to even sit down on his bed.

“You think you're goin' anywhere, old man?” yelled the younger man “You and I have un-finished business!”

It was then that the young man pulled out a pocket knife he had somehow hidden from the guards. Peppy didn't want to ask how or why he had hidden it. All he knew is he was tired and wanted to lay his weary bones down. Even the knife wildly being swung near his face did little to dull his tiredness.

“I AM ANDREW OIKONNY! AND I WILL END YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY UNCLE!”

Andrew stabbed the knife forward in an attempt to stab the old hare directly in the heart. Almost instantly, the hare grabbed Andrew's hand in a vice like grip. Staring him directly in the eyes without a word.

Within a second, the old hare had pushed him forward onto the ground with a slam. And now held Andrew's knife in his own hand.

“Why thank ya” snarked the old hare “I think I'll hold on'ta this!”

He showed off by spinning the knife around almost like one would with a revolver, before shoving it into one of the pockets of the outfit the prison had given to him.

Andrew stared up at the ceiling. He could not at all comprehend how he had been bested by this old man. The only thing he could at all think of to blame was the circumstances he had found himself in.

Peppy finally managed to sit down as he let out an exhausted sigh as Andrew pulled himself up from the ground, pain pulsing through various parts of his body as a result. He meekly walked over to his own bed and held his head in his hands as he sat down on it.

“Now, I want ya ta listen' to me!” Said Peppy, leaning forward “Now I'm sure both of us endin' up here in this dang ol' cell ain't a coincidence...Im gonna have ya'all tell me everythin' ya know!”

“Huh? Are you nuts? As if I'd work with you!”

“Ya do wanna get outta here? Dontcha?”

“....”

Andrew couldn't deny he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. He had things he needed to do and check and every second he spent rotting away in this cell was another moment they spent bottling up his potential. At least, that's what he thought. And although working with Peppy of all people was an unappealing concept, inside he knew he'd just be doing nothing otherwise.

“Alright...Just tell me what you want to know. But I have my conditions, old man.”

“Well? Name em”

“1: If you have a plan here: I want in”

“Ya got it”

“2: I'm the boss here. You will be referring to me as Commander Oikonny from this point for-”

“Absolutely not”

“Now listen Hare! You wi-”

“Naw”

Andrew threw his hands up in the air “...fine, I guess 1 out of 2 is acceptable! Now....to begin with....”

“It all began a couple of days ago. I and the rest of Star Wolf were investigating a small abandoned military base on Venom: Peppers orders”

-Two days ago, in a location unknown on Venom-

Wolf, Leon, Pigma and Andrew stood in front of a massive shutter door made out of an incredibly strong metal. Near to it, stood a small terminal that could be used to input a entry password. The group had been trying to get inside for quite some time.

“Come on!” yelled Pigma, throwing his hands in his jacket pockets “We've already combed this whole dang facility and found nothin' worthwhile! What makes ya think there's anything good in there?”

"'Nothing worthwhile!?'” yelled Andrew in response, turning his head to look at Pigma “My uncle Andross worked in this facility and I'm certain all of it is GENIUS! You just don't understand it!”

“WELL?” Replied Pigma, continuing the shouting match as he stared right into Andrew's soul “DO YOU UNDERSTAND ANY OF THIS?”

“Well, I...” Andrew meekly replied, “I mean I...Well, I can't say I-”

“Heheheeh...heeh...heeheh....”

“WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHIN' HERE LEON!” yelled pigma in response to his team mates sudden chuckling “ARE YA CHUCKLIN FOR THE HECK OF IT OR DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?”

“heheh” Replied Leon as he began to walk towards the huge metal shutter “No, no, it's just funny.”

“Funny, lil man?”

“It just kinda amuses me” he said “That none of you have tried the most obvious solution yet..hehehe..”

Leon slid his hand gently down the metal door for a few seconds before beginning to slam as hard as he could on the door. The first slam did little to discourage him, as he soon followed up with a second slam, then a third, then a fourth. The minute this went on for felt more like hours to everyone else present. 

Before Leon could finish his fifth slam against the door, Wolf, who had until now had been leaning against a nearby wall as he quietly watched this situation unfold, interjected.

“Leon stop” commanded Wolf as he took a quick glance at Andrew and Pigma “I'm going to try the terminal one more time. But after that we move on”

“Ohh?” Leon replied as he sat down in front of the metal shutter out of exhaustion “You got an idea bossman? Hehe....this I wanna see...”

Wolf stood in front of the terminal and began to input what he had figured might have been the password. After a few seconds of keyboard clacks filling the room, the group was surprised to hear a “password confirmed” Jingle blare out from nearby speakers as the shutter slowly began to open.

As the door slowly rose from the ground, The group formed into posistion for a door breach: Wolf and Leon on one side, and Andrew and Pigma on the other. They were ready for anything that might of lurked inside the room. They were potientally about to go into combat if anything dangerous was indeed on the other side. However, Andrew had one thing he wanted to ask before then

“Wolf, how on earth did you figure out that password? Andross was my Uncle and yet it baffled even me”

“Tch, replied Wolf “You really don't know?”

“Don't know what, exactly?”

“Your dear old uncle had a-”

Wolf didn't have a chance to finish, as a light blue bolt rushed past Andrew's head and shot into Wolf's body. It didn't take Andrew long to figure out who must of fired that shot as he felt cold metal press against the back of his head.

“Thats enough outta you! 'boss'”

Leon, infuriated, took a few steps toward Pigma and Andrew.

“OH? YOU SHOT THE BOSS AND NOW YOU'RE PLANNIN' ON TAKIN, THE REST OF US OUT, HUH? HUHUHUH?”

“Please little man, I set my blaster to stun” Pigma replied “As much as ya'all irritate me, I'm under orders to spare ya'all”

“THAT'S TOO BAD!” Screamed Leon, as he pulled out a combat knife “LOOKS LIKE THERE'S GONNA BE ROAST PORK FOR DINNER TONIGHT, PIGGY BOY!”

Leon lunged forward. Given a few seconds more, Pigma would of found a knife lodged directly into his head. Unfortunatly for leon, in a split second Pigma pulled his blaster away from Andrew's head and with a loud noise and flash of light, Leon was pushed backwards and soon found himself unconcious on the floor. 

Andrew quickly took this chance to lunge forward away from Pigma before turning as he pulled out a blaster of his own. This was seemingly not a move Pigma had been expecting, as he looked quite surprised. But pointed his own blaster at Andrew as quickly as he could.

As the two pointed their blasters, a tension you could almost reach out and feel filled the room. This was a stalemate neither man was willing to lose.

“Betray me will you? Andross will have your head when he comes outta hiding! Why would you do something so foolish?”

“Outta hidin', little man? The freaks DEAD!”

“ANSWER MY QUESTION!”

“God you're annoying, always Uncle Andross that and Uncle Andross this!”

“I AM ANDREW OIKONNY! AND I WILL HAVE YOU WATCH YOUR TONE, YOU CUR!”

“Weell....I guess I might as well answer ya question! It's not like ya'll ever be under the sun again anyway!”

“General Peppers orders. I ain't about to let any of ya see whats behind those shutters!”

Andrews hand shook as he held the blaster in his hand “ITS MY UNCLES WORK! I HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE IT!”

“YA AIN'T GOT A RIGHT TO SEE NOTHIN'!”

Andrew screamed as loud as he could as he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger....1 seconds went by, then another. And yet nothing. As Andrew opened his eyes, he again found a gun pointed directly at his head.

Without another word, there was a loud noise, and as pain washed over his face, Andrew found himself covered in white light. It wasn't long before everything went dark and he slowly slipped out of conciousness.


	18. Chapter 18

Andrew sat in silence as he finished describing the events that had taken place on the Venom base. Peppy sat still with his eyes closed, deep in thought as he considered the information he was just given.

The old hare began to scratch his chin, opened his eyes and started to speak

“Awright then, so it should stand ta reason that yer ol' buddies are somewhere on this dang rock?”

“It stands to reason, yes. However why you'd want to see my subordinates when they let me get captured is beyond me.”

“Just work with me here, ya'all” replied Peppy, slight annoyance evident in his voice “If we can hook up with ya buddies, I bet I can get together a dang ol plan that works”

“You mean I'LL get together a pl-”

It was just before Andrew began his sentence, that the jail cell door swung open, revealing a sight that shocked both present:

There stood General Pepper, casually eying the cell and its two occupants before he slowly began to take steps into the cell.

However, within seconds, Andrew had risen to his feet and lunged towards the General.

“YOU BASTARD” Sceamed Andrew as he took a swing at Pepper. A swing that, sadly for him, The General had within a split second had caught in his hand.

“Please” replied Pepper to this turn of events “I worked with your uncle, Young man. What would he think if he saw you taking a swing at one of his coworkers? Such rudeness!”

Almost effortly, Pepper kicked Andrew in his stomach with his knee, making him recoil backwards in pain before falling backwards.

“Well” Said Pepper, dusting off his hands as he looked towards Peppy “I hope you'll show me something resembling manners, old friend”

“Dangit. Don't treat me like a child ya cowpoke”

“Please” Continued Pepper as he walked more and more into the cell and closer to Peppy “I've come here to bring you good news! Surely you can greet me with a little more warmness”

Pepper sat down on the bed he had freed up as a result of knocking Andrew unconcious. And began to speak as he leaned forward and held his hands together.

“It's exciting news as well....You're soon to have guests”

“Guests?” Peppy had ignored the Generals attempt to mess with him so far, but something about that last sentence made him uneasy.

“Why yes! Your dear co-workers will soon be coming down to visit their dear old man!”

“What did you DO?” Peppy replied in anger as he clenched his fists tight. Trying to contain the anger that was now swelling up inside of him.

“Oh please! I did nothing! I just put a few things in place and gave them pointers to help them find their dear old man! Really what I did for them was a favor! You should be thanking me!”

Peppy's breath grew heavier as his anger continued to grow. He would have tried to punch him then and there, but Peppy suspected that something was up, if his unchararsitic strength he had seemingly gained out of nowhere was anything to go on.

“Anyway” Pepper said as he rose to his feet “Must be going! Got quite a busy schedule ahead me”

Pepper walked out of the room, taking a giant step over Andrew who still lay unconscious on the floor in the fetal position.

“But I'll be seeing you again soon! Real soon!” He said as the cell door slammed open behind him. Peppy was taken aback by what had just unfolded. And something in his gut told him he needed to act fast from this point forward. Or something horrible would happen.

Fox leaned against the railing of a small bridge that stood over a river and was surrounded by roads, filled to the brim with traffic. As he adjusted his father's sunglasses, which he wore to vaguely disguise himself, he caught a glimpse of a watch that was wrapped around his wrist. And he realized Wolf was late. It had been a day since their last meeting and while Fox honestly thought he'd cut and run, he seemed to have stuck to his self-imposed two-day limit. Fox didn't expect him to get back to him within 24 hours though. 

Fox stood there, looking blankly into the river as ten minutes went by. It was then that he felt a gentle, yet firm tap on his shoulder.

“I was waiting for you!” Replied Fox, turning around to see exactly who he expected: Wolf O'donnel.

“Look” greeted wolf. Holding up a briefcase he had held in his hand “This isn't exactly what I was talking about. But It'll do for now to show to you can trust me”

Fox leaned against the railing “Please. You expect me to trust you just like that?”

“Look do you want the briefcase or not?”

“What's even in it?”

“Fake Ids and, well, disguises....ACTUAL DISGUISES”

“Actual disguises?”

“Well YES! I have absolutely no notion how you haven't been spotted yet!”

Fox sighed and reluctantly leaned forward to grab the briefcase before leaning back onto the railing.

“Well...thanks...I guess...”

To Fox's surprise, rather than leaving, Wolf joined fox in leaning against the railing, pulling out a cigar before putting it into his mouth.

“Still, where do you get off calling my disguise bad with that eyepatch of yours?”

“What do you think I could take this off even if I wanted?” replied Wolf as he pulled a lighter out to light his cigar “I'd stick out even more if I took this thing off”

“Huh. Figured you wore that thing for show.”

“Please. I may do many things for show. But this thing isn't one of them”

“That brings up another question” asked fox, as he turned around to face the river and continued to lean against the railing “How did you even get....whatever might be under that thing?”

“Please. I only tell that story to people I deem worthy enough to hear it”

“Ok. A easier question for you: Why are you helping me?”

“Tch. If I had any other options I wouldn't have asked you” replied wolf, putting his cigar between his fingers and blowing out smoke “But I'm...between a rock and a hard place, to say the least”

“Oh, so you're not helping us out of the goodness of your own heart, then?”

“Please” Wolf said as he flicked his cigar in the river and began to walk away from Fox “We're both in similar situations here. People we both care about are in harm's way. You'd do well to appreciate that I'm helping you at all”

With those words, Wolf began to walk away. It wasn't long until he turned a corner and was outside of Fox's view. As fox resumed staring blankly into the river with only his thoughts for company, Fox had to admit he was at least a little curious about the story behind Wolf's eyepatch.

He sighed and slowly began the short walk back to the garage. The sounds of the hustle and bustle of the area filling his mind.


	19. Chapter 19

Falco rested his legs on the garages table as he looked up into the ceiling. Slippy sat near him, going through various pages of the folder Wolf had left them. Muttering to himself about various aspects of the security system.

“W-wow” said Slippy out of nowhere. “T-they've got some advanced stuff i-in th-that black site.”

“Yeah?”

“T-they've got t-triple ZoobBuffering, r-right there i-in the entrance. A-and it only g-gets m-more advanced from t-ther-”

“Wait!” interjected Falco “Zoob Buffering? What on earth is Zoob Buffering?”

“Well, imagine that y-your b-body leaves beh-behind a-a tr-trace of its-itself...”

“What? Like a ghost?”

“W-well...I-I suppose you c-could put it that w-way”

“Alright'. Continue”

“S-so a-as you go through the f-facility y-you leav-leave multiple of th-those traces b-behind y-y-you”

“Wait. Like multiple ghosts?”

“Y-yes, F-Falco, l-like multiple gh-ghosts...”

“Gotcha”

“A-anyway a-as I was saying, I-”

Slippy's explanation was cut off as the duo heard the back door swing open, the two turned their attention to the source of the sound to discover Fox approaching them, a briefcase in hand. Without a word he threw it onto the table.

“Whatcha got here, Foxy-boy?” asked Falco, as he slowly began the process of opening the case.

“Disguises and fake Ids, apparently” replied Fox, sitting down on a chair to join the group.

“A-apparently?”

“Believe it or not, those are a gift from our new 'friend' from Star Wolf”

“Ya sure Wolf can be trusted with things like this?”

“W-well i-im n-not sure an-any of us h-h-here know h-how to get fake I-IDs...”

Falco swung the case open and pulled out a random ID. And somehow by random chance had pulled out the one that was intended for him.

“Falke LemBombdo, huh?” he said out loud, reading the ID “That, ain't very original....”

Falco made fun of how low effort the ID seemed in front of the others. But he had to admit. Something about being called “Falke” seemed, appealing to him on the inside.

Slippy turned the briefcase towards him and pulled out his own ID

“S-Slipper Frog!?” said slippy at an uncharacteristic loud volume as he read his ID “W-what?”

“Lemme look at mine” said Fox, basically snatching the briefcase from Slippy.

“POX MCDONNALDS?” Yelled Fox, joining the others in shock of how low effort these Ids were on the naming front.

“We're having mcdonnalds for dinner?” a refined voice said from behind them. The group had failed to realize in their commotion that Fay had just entered the room “I don't recomend that slop but you ARE our guests one supposes” 

“Eh! Nah nah!” Replied Falco “We're lookin' at fake Ids”

“Fake Ids?” Miyu replied, dropping a bag of groceries onto the table “What on earth would you need those for”

“Only Wolf knows that, apparently” replied Fox “We're going to need to get these replaced at some point though. These are useless to us”

“T-there's still th-the disguises i-in here th-though....w-we sh-should pro-probably check tho-those o-out...”

Slippy turned the briefcase back towards him, and pulled out a bright green, blue, and yellow tie dye t-shirt with the words “BAD BOY” written on it in comic sans. He tossed it on himself and over his bright white t-shirt before asking “H-how d-do I l-look?”

“Absolutely ridiclous” Replied Falco

“W-wow... g-gee...t-thanks... I-I thought it l-looked neat...”

Fox reached into the briefcase and felt around. It wasn't long before he pulled out some sunglasses shaped like the numbers “2010” that were absolutely covered in glitter.

“How do I look”

“Ya know” replied Falco “I think you look even more ridiculous than Slippy did.”

“A-an-and isn't the y-year...20....2060 an-anyway? Wh-where did wolf e-even g-get th-those”

“Absolutely beats me” replied Fox, as he pulled various poses with the glasses on in spite of his collueques harsh criticisms.

“Well then” Fay said in response to the scene she had just watched unfold “It seems like your new friend has proven quite unreliable on the disguise front”

“I'll say.” replied Falco.

Fay struck a pose, leaning over and holding her head in her hand thoughtfully “It's a good thing you gentlemen have found yourself with a former fashion designer as one of your compatriots!”

“W-we d-do? W-who might th-that be?”

“You're uh, looking at her...” Fay replied, the wind seemingly taken out of her sails in an instant.

“You could set us up with something that sticks out a little less?” replied Fox, turning to face Fay as he threw the 2010 sunglasses back into the briefcase “We would really appreciate it.”

“Consider it done!” replied Fay enthusiastically as she did a little bow “I'll have decent disguises in your hands in the blink of an eye!”

Fay turned to leave. It was as she swung open the back door that she seemingly remembered something and turned to face the group again.

“Ah yes! It almost escaped me! Falco, could you follow me outside for a moment?”

“Eh, sure!” replied Falco, rising to his feet.

Within a few minutes, the two stood outside in the small alleyway that rested at the back of the garage. It was as Falco slowly observed his surroundings, that he saw a little dent mark on one of the nearby dumpsters. He smirked a little when he remembered he had caused that dent by slamming Wolf's head into it. A stunt he vaguely regretted since he was now apparently aiding them. But not too much since he was still kinda an asshole in Falco's eyes.

Fay turned around to face Falco, her hands grasped together in excitement as she began to speak.

“Falco! My dear! Would you perchance be interested in attending dinner with Miyu and I?”

“Whuh?” replied Falco in surprise “I mean I uh, I guess it'd be uh, nice after everythin' that's happened lately”

“Brilliant! Bring just yourself and meet us at our apartment at 8 later this evening!”

“J-just me huh?”

“Oh don't worry” replied Fay as she turned to leave the alleyway “You'll see why soon!”

With a gentle wave, Fay left the alleyway. Leaving Falco on his own. As Falco headed back to the garage, he had to admit to himself that he was honestly quite excited to eat something beyond just junk food for once.


	20. Chapter 20

Falco swung the door open to Miyu and Fay's small apartment. He had wondered why the two had wanted to meet here instead of heading directly to the restaurant and why everyone else from Star Fox seemingly wasn't invited. It wouldn't take him long to uncover why.

“Ay! It's me!” greeted Falco as he peeked through the now opened door and glanced around to see if anyone was home.

“Ey, Birdy!” replied Miyu as she came into the living room out of a nearby kitchen, before pulling out a chair on a nearby table that sat in the middle of the room “Just sit yer keister right there and I'll be right with ya in a sec!”

Falco threw his hands into his pockets and slowly walked into the room and towards the table. And before long and without a word had sat down on the chair.

“Be back withcha in a sec!” Miyu said as she excused herself back into the kitchen, leaving Falco alone in the living room. As he rested one of his arms on the table, he was left alone with his thoughts. He looked outside one of the apartment's windows, watching the sun set slowly amongst an orange sky as he heard clattering and various other sounds come from the kitchen.

“Ya need a hand in there?” Falco yelled

“Nah! We got everythin' under control!” yelled Miyu back

A few minutes went by before Miyu, and to Falco's surprise, Fay, wandered back out of the kitchen. Both had their arms wrapped up and filled to the brim with various hair dressing tools and containers. And additionally, various articles of makeup. The two placed the piles onto the table. Fay gently did so, one by one, while Miyu just kinda unwrapped her arms and let everything she had been holding drop onto the table. 

“W-whatcha planing to do with all those?” Falco asked, the implications honestly making him feel more than a little blushy

“Well, I suppose one should tell you what our plan for this evening appears to be” Replied Fay “You're the one who devised this plan, Miyu. Why don't you tell them?”

“Whuh? Why do I gotta-”

“Well, Ok. I suppos' that's fine”

Miyu pulled out a chair and slowly sat down onto it, resting in a lazy kind of pose

“Listen bird boy, I'm sure ya aware at this point that its been obvious to me whatcha been bottling up ever since ya came ere”

Falco could think of nothing to argue against this. Miyu had been on the ball so far. To the point Falco had wondered if she understood him more than he did himself.

“Yeah? Ya point is?”

“So, with everythin' else goin' on me and Fay figured' it wouldn't be 'ealthy for ya to leave that stuff unresolved. So Fay ere is gonna pretty ya up if you'd like. And, I'm ere to talk with ya if that's something you'd also wanna be doin'!”

Falco was taken aback, he sat in silence for a few minutes, looking outside through the window. Both an attempt to maintain his facade of coolness and avoid eye contact.

“I mean, if it's a problem we can always push it back or somethin'” Miyu asked “it wouldn't be any troub-”

“Nah!” replied Falco, cutting her off as he turned his gaze back to the duo “I...I'd actually really like that...”

“Sweet!” Miyu replied as Fay walked to the back of Falco with a brush “Would ya like ya hair done the same way I did it last time?”

“Y-yeah”

As Fay began the process of brushing Falco's hair, Miyu began her line of questioning.

“So, ta begin' with. How do ya feel about, well, you?”

“Well, if I'm bein' honest...pretty bad”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah...its kinda like, whenever I see myself in the mirror, something just feels, wrong. Ya know?”

“Yeah. I get ya. I've been there.”

“Yeah? I think I recall ya sayin' somethin' like that?”

“Yeah...believe it or not, I wasn't always this cool”

“Keep this to yaself, birdy, but I used ta run with a pretty large biker gang...Me and me brother rode fer miles across Corneria. Both for the thrill and to...well ta put it bluntly...ta outrun some of our problems...Me more so then my brother”

“And if one recalls correctly, that was around the time we met?”

“Yea. Around bout then. It was when I met ya that I saw something...both someone I wanted to know better....and someone I saw bits of myself in...”

“It was then I realized...The only reason I even rode with my bro was to try and outrun myself...and the feelings that hit me whenever I saw meself in the mirror”

Miyu paused, tears rolling up in her eyes as she seemingly recalled some quite painful memories

“Ya wanna know why I've taken such an interest in ya, Falcy? It's because I see some'a myself from then in ya.”

Falco was quite taken aback by these revelations. He didn't think anyone shared similar pains to the ones he had hid deep inside of himself. As he saw Miyu hold back tears, he was honestly on the verge of starting to cry himself. 

He also honestly couldn't argue with some of the points she had brought up either. Trying to outrun his own feelings was almost the entire reason Falco had signed up to join team Starfox and had participated in the Lylat Wars. Only to slowly realize it had slowly been making his own problems worse.

“How you figured all this out about me is beyond me. But ya got it in one” confirmed Falco “Whaddya suggest I do...I just...feel so lost all the time.”

Miyu rested her shoulder on the table and took a sip of a nearby can of Soda that had been left on the table before she began to speak again.

“So it's obvious to me, at the very least, that dressin' girly an stuff dulls at least some of the pain ya've been dealin' with. I'd suggest ya run with that.”

“W-well” replied Falco “Where do ya suggest I start? That's kinda a big thing to start dealing with...”

“Well I can only really tell ya where I started. I started by pickin' out a new name for myself.”

Falco leaned forward onto the table as he continued to feel his hair get brushed into a nicer style. He deeply thought about his own name. And how much he disliked it. It was then that it hit him.

“It's, a slight variation. But, what do ya all think about 'Falke'”

“Oh! That's cute!” Chimed in Fay.

“Yea! It suits ya!” replied Miyu

As Fay finished brushing Falke's hair into a similar pixie cut it had been done in before, Miyu continued her line of questioning.

“So, quick question for ya, do ya think ya'd enjoy us refering to ya with girl-ish terms n stuff?”

Falke blushed as red as a tomato and was incredibly flustered. It didn't take long to reach a decision.

“Y-yeah...” she almost whispered “I....I'd like that a lot....”

Miyu began passing various containers of makeup to Fay and began to explain her plan for the evening.

“So, we're gonna get ya all prettied up. And then we're gonna head out for a gals night! Just the three of us!”

Falke honestly couldn't stop blushing. As the duo helped her get various articles of makeup prepared and helped her fit into a red cocktail dress, she honestly felt like she was in a dream. Her heart filled with joy as she thought about the evening that awaited her.


	21. Chapter 21

Fox sat alone. Looking out of the window at the early morning sunlight. He had come to the small cafe earlier then when he agreed to meet with Bill. Mainly because he figured hitting up a bar again after his previous experience probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

As Fox sipped his hot chocolate from a lil cup and listened to the soundscape of people talking, walking, leaving, and drinking the cafe offered, he saw just the man he wanted to see enter the bar.

“Heya dude!” Bill basically bellowed as he sat down on the chair on the opposite side of Fox's chair

“Keep it down!” said Fox in response to Bill's volume. “We can't end up letting anyone know we're here!”

“Ah! Sorry brah! Its just so good to see ya again!”

While Fox's priority was on staying inconspicuous, he had to admit Bills generally boisrious demeanor was something he found weirdly comforting to be around in most circumstances.

“But yeah, dude” Said Bill, placing a small notebook he had seemingly filled to the brim with information. Quite a feat for just a couple of days “I really shouldn't be doing this. But what they tried to pull on ya back on the bar was just bogus.”

Fox grabbed and began to flick through the notebook. Revealing that the information it had been filled with pertained to things like General Peppers whereabouts, planned speeches, future military exercises, and commands he had recently given or planned to give out soon.

“This is impressive stuff”

“Well, my dude, when you get promoted to my rank ya get access to a lot of things. What can I say?”

Fox put the notepad into his pocket and rose to begin the process of leaving the cafe before Bill piped up again

“Hey now, you uh, leavin' already?”

“Yeah?”

“C'mon dude. Ya can't leave just yet!”

“Oh?” replied fox as he slowly returned to his seat “What's this all about”

“I mean nothin' really” said Bill as he looked out of the window and leaned one of his arms onto the table “I just wanna hang out with my ol' bro, ya know”

Fox contemplated this. He had a packed day ahead of him, and probably couldn't afford to waste too much time, but killing ten or twenty minutes with his old pal couldn't be TOO big of a deal

“Sounds like a plan" Fox replied, his decision made.

“Sweet! I'll order up! They got any brewskis here you'd recommend?

“Brewskis?” asked Fox “Bill, this is a cafe”

“Yeah? I'm aware of that my dude” replied Bill as he rose from his seat “If ya ain't got any recomendations I'll go order up!”

As Fox watched Bill walk away from his seat and towards the the small line towards the till from which you could order drinks. Fox felt a small, almost light fuzzy feeling hit his heart. A feeling he hadn't felt, incidentally, since he had hung out with Bill back in high school. 

The two had been sat on the floor, eating pizza and playing video games throughout the night. As the morning sun rose and shone through Bill's small dorm room window, the light fell on his face.

It was a sight Fox found honestly beautiful. Bill had always had a comforting appearance to Fox. But something about this lighting had brought out a lot of the aspects of it Fox particularly liked. Before long and without realizing it, Fox had begun to stare deeply into his face, his own showing signs of warmly blushing.

It was then that Bill turned his head to face Fox. And with a “There somethin' on my face dude?”, Fox turned his head away and the two continued their regular routine. And weird thoughts filled Fox's mind before he quickly discarded them as “just nothing”

Fox was quickly dragged out of his introspection as Bill sat back down on the seat opposite to him and placed a large glass of strawberry milkshake with a long twisty straw sticking out of it.

“So, whatcha got planned after this?” asked Bill before he began loudly slurping from the straw.

Fox didn't want to go TOO in detail about his plans. But if there was anyone outside of Star Fox he could trust it was Bill. So he figured there would be no harm in letting him know about the actions he and his team planned to take 

“We're gonna drag Peppy outta where he's bein held” Fox whispered

“Huh? The General has Peppy? Darn.”

“Yeah. We're gonna try to go off planet tomorrow to try and drag him out”

“That makes sense though” Replied Bill before continuing to loudly slurp on his Milkshake

“What does?”

“The dude has been taking an awful lot of trips to Aquas lately and I couldn't at ALL figure out why. I jotted that lil' factoid down in the notebook, even though it seemed like kinda a dud”

Bill suddenly rose from his seat, leaving his Milkshake half finished.

“Listen, buddy. Hate to cut this short, but I gotta check up on somethin' with my boys! Hit me and my dudes up if you need a hand with anythin' ok?”

“But wait we jus-”

“Sorry dude! I'll catcha ya later!”

Before Fox could get any more words in, Bill had already begun to leave. It wasn't long before he had entirely left. Disappearing from Fox's view.

Fox hoped he could get this business over with soon. If only so he could spend time with Bill again.


	22. Chapter 22

The cafeteria was absolutely filled to the brim with people. Most of them wearing bright orange prison jumpsuits, many quietly eating whatever slop the staff who ran the place felt fitting to give them, others walking across the cold, gray tile floor to get to a table and many more forming a queue to where their lunch was being served. Guards quietly watched the prisoners and patrolled around the room. Ensuring none of them were up to any funny business.

On one of the tables Sat Andrew Oikonny. Alone. Staring down into the awful-looking slop he was supposed to be eating. Instead picking at it with a spoon. Did they REALLY expect him, a heir to the Andross empire, to eat THIS? They had to be joking.

Andrew was thrown out of his contemplation as in the corner of his eye, he saw his cell mate sitting down next to him.

“Could you please sit somewhere else, Gramps?”

“Huh? Nahh. I think I like this seat.”

“Please. Many would fight for the privilege to sit next to the great Andrew Oiko-”

Before Andrew could continue, he became distracted by the loud slurping noises his compatriot was making as he ate.

“Y-you find this slop, appealing, gramps”

Peppy slurped down the slop he had filled his mouth with quickly in an effort to reply.

“Yeah? It's pretty dang tasty!”

Andrew looked deeply at the food he had previously disregarded. Now reconsidering if it was worth eating. He hadn't eaten in days and just about anything suddenly seemed appealing.

He dug his spoon into the food before lifting up a big chunk of the light brown slop that apparently was his lunch. It was as he took a big whiff and a horrifying smell struck his nostrils that he regretted even slightly reconsidering. Basically dropping his spoon onto his plate as Peppy continued to wolf down the food he had been given enthustically.

It was a few minutes later, as Peppy had almost finished eating, that the two turned their attention to quite a commotion that had begun to unfold in one of the corners of the cafeteria.

A group of about four people had formed around a single person in a circle. The four basically yelling into the mans face as he seemingly eyed them up, considering his options.

It was then, with half horror and half other emotions that made him want to roll his eyes out of his head, that Andrew realized that the man the group surrounded was Leon.

Leon casually leaned against the wall as the men surrounded them. He had been antagonizing this group for the few days he had been here. Mostly out of boredom as it turned out.

“WHATCHA THINK YA DOIN' LIL MAN?” Asked one of the men

“YEA! WHATCHA THINK YA TRYIN' TO DO?” Asked another one of them

Leon just continued to quietly listen to the men's attempts at insulting and provoking him as he crossed his arms and a small smirk began to grow on his face.

“C'MON YA CAN'T MESS WITH US LIKE THIS, NEW BOY!”

“YEH! YA CAN'T MESS WITH US LIKE THIS!”

It was with this, that Leon began to quietly chuckle as he looked down on the floor.

“YA THINK THIS IS FUNNY?”

Leon suddenly began to maintain eye contact with one of the men and stepping towards them.

“Hehehe...” chuckled Leon “You know what? It kinda is.”

“HOW DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? DO YA KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN I-”

It was then, that as guards began to make note of and approach the commotion, that Leon suddenly pulled a knife out of his jumpsuit and wildly swung into the mans face, cutting off whatever he had to say to him.

“OF COURSE IT IS! YOU PICKED A FIGHT WITH THE GREAT LEON!”

As blood began to spew from the mans face and he held it in his hands to loudly scream. The three other men in the group began full on brawling with Leon, and every guard in the room quickly rushed over to try and prevent this from developing into a full on riot.

Peppy and Andrew continued to silently watch from afar as the brawl continued. Leon continued to swing wildly with the knife he had somehow managed to sneak into the prison. As he cut into several people, it almost looked like, in spite of the ridiculous odds against him, that he might almost win. Blood spewing in various directions as Leons loud chuckles could be heard across the room.

Sadly for Leon, it wasn't long before the pile of guards that had converged on his location managed to subdue him.

As the guards dragged him towards the cafeteria exit. It didn't take long for Andrew and Peppy to realize that he was probably being taken somewhere quite hard to access. Something that threw quite a wrench in the gears of the plan the duo had formulated just hours before.


	23. Chapter 23

Wolf drove a beaten-up car he had “acquired” down the highway. Fox sitting next to him, and Slippy and Falke sitting in the backseats. It had been a couple of days since Fox had met with Bill, and they had devised their plan. A tension washed over the car as it seemed like a haphazard plan to most of the group. But it was the only one they had.

“Come on. It's time you let me drive” Said Fox, as Wolf turned a corner.

“Not a chance, Foxy boy. I drive or nobody drives”

“I-I r-reall wo-would be m-more comfor-comfortable with F-fox driving”

“For once I would prefer ol foxy drive” chirped in Falke

“Keep it down!” replied Wolf to his passengers, “We're only half an hour away from the airport anyway!” 

“Yeah” chipped in Falke “A half hour YOU'RE drivin'!”

“Look!” replied Wolf as he hit the brakes to slow the car as he noticed traffic ahead “its my car so its MY rules” 

“Oh come on! This probably ain't even your car!”

Wolf deeply sighed, “Well I guess you got me there. LOOK. Just get your disguises and Ids ready and focus on the plan!”

Half an hour later, the group had parked their car in the airport car park. Fox swung open the door and stepped out in his disguise: A pair of tacky sunglasses shaped like the numbers “2010!”, a bright rainbow-colored scarf, an also rainbow colored tie dye shirt, and “designer” ripped jeans.

Slippy stepped out from the backseat next. His regular cap reversed and wearing a t-shirt with “Women want me. Flies fear me!” written on it in comic Sans. Aside from that there wasn't much difference to his regular outfit.

Next, stepped out Wolf, his eyepatch removed and a pair of sunglasses filling the role it normally did. he additionally wore a dark red hoody, and jorts.

And Finally, stepped out Falke. Entirely devoid of any disguise and adorned in their normal outfit. Wolf looked at Falke and shook his head

“Come on now! You've gotta get set up or-”

“Nah. Ya all look ridiculous as hell! I'm not puttin 'on one of those getups!”

“Y-yeah... F-Falco i-is r-right” said Slippy before pausing “I-I do l-like my-my shirt though”

Falke felt a ball of stress hit in her stomach as she was refered with that name. But with the situation currently unfolding she didn't feel like trying to let the others know.

“Uggh fine” replied Wolf “Lets AT LEAST have a roll call of the names we're going to be going by!”

“D-d-do we h-have to?”

“WE DO!”

“W—well o-okay...I-I'm....u-uh 'Sloppy Frogg'?”

“I'm....Flux McDonnald” said Fox.

“Right. I'm...wait....Wompf O'dommald?” Wolf stared at the ID he had been given “What....what is this name?!”

Wolf had seemingly not considered that the people he had hit up to forge these Ids might have not been the best at their work

“Ugh...fine. You're up next, Birdy!”

This was something Falke had honestly been excited for. She honestly got the impression she was the only one in the group who was excited to go under the “fake name” she had been given.

“I'm Falke Lomberdeo” answered Falke with a smirk on her face.

“Ok. With that done could one of you clowns run over the plan one more time to ensure we're all on the same page here?”

“Ugh, again?” replied Fox “Fine. We've just gotta reach a certain point in the airport before we can access a launch bay and borrow a small private ship. Right?”

“Correct. Top marks” confirmed Wolf “Now. I know you're all a step down from the group I'm used to. But please don't mess this up for me”

The rest of the group almost rolled their eyes out of their eyes at the comments their supposed “leader” was making. But begrudgingly decided to continue going along with this plan.

Half an hour later, the group had begun to enact their plan. To surprisingly decent results thus far. Slippy and Falke had crossed one of the metal detectors with Fox and Wolf on the other side. With Fox currently undergoing a pat down by one of the members of security.

“So uh” suddenly said the security guard “Has uh, anyone ever told ya you look a lil' like that Fox Mcloud guy?”

“Haha. All the time”

“I can see why” the guard replied “I know the boys dead but ya sure ya ain't him?”

“Hahah! Nah no nope absolutely not! Ahahaah!”

“They're twice removed cousins” Wolf suddenly said, butting into the conversation. Almost trying to make an excuse for the incredible likeness.

“Haha! Well really now! That's intrestin'. How ya been taken yer cousins deat-”

Before the guard could finish, a laser beam shot past Wolf and almost hit Fox, but instead hit him instead. Launching him back through the metal detector. It was as Fox and Wolf turned to see who had fired that shot and as panic began to break out across the airport, that they saw who was targetting them:

A group, wearing the same Cornera special forces outfits that the two had seen at the bar, rushed towards them. It was then that Fox noticed something that horrified him:

Leading the group was Bill Gray. Yelling out orders that Fox couldn't quite hear. Fox stood entirely still for a few seconds. Incapable of processing the things he was currently seeing before Wolf tightly grabbed his shoulder 

“GET IT TOGETHER!” Wolf yelled “OR WE'RE ALL TOAST”

With this pulling Fox back into reality, the duo rushed through the metal detector, setting it off, Before long the entire group began desperately running towards their objective. Hoping they could make it before the soldiers targeting them caught up


	24. Chapter 24

The group rushed into the airports private hangar. Which now stood devoid of staff due to the commotion that had been caused by cornerian special forces shooting an airport guard. Fox and his team had used the panic and confusion that followed to and hide amongst the panicked crowds which rushed for safety in all directions. It had somehow made getting here easier and less complicated than the plan Wolf had initially concieved. But they were certain that the goons targetting them would catch up sooner, rather than later.

They rushed into their target through its cargo airlock, a small private ship designed for inconspicuous traveling along across long distances: The R1 Androbotics cruiser, modified with some defense systems and weaponry.

As they did this, the rest of the group could of swore Wolf seemed almost disappointed as he realized all the doors to the ship were left open and he wouldn't have a chance to show off his lock-picking skills.

The group rushed into the ship, Falke taking the main controls, Slippy rushing to close all the doors intended for passengers, And Fox and Wolf used some boxes as cover in the cargo bay, in anticipation that their pursuers may soon catch up.

The ship had begun its take off sequence, the Cargo airlock door slowly closing and one of the Hangers shutters opening as it detected a ship in take off mode. Falke flicked a few switches, causing the ship to slowly turn and then move towards the shutter, slowly gaining speed.

It was as the ship approached the shutter, that Fox and Falco, still in the Cargo, saw the same back door to the hangar the group had entered through, swing open, the heavily armed, masked group led by Bill rushed in.

“BLAST IT!” Yelled Bill “UNIT! AIM TO DISABLE THAT THING!”

As a hail of Laser fire began to wash over the ship, Wolf began to fire back at their assailants, effortlessly shooting several of them in various vital points, blasting them backwards, and onto the ground. Fox wished Wolf had set his blaster to stun for this. But he had to admit he was impressed by his pinpoint accuracy, given that they were in a moving ship and he was firing through a slowly closing cargo door.

It was as Fox peaked out himself to return fire, that he saw a sight that shocked him: Bill was rushing towards the ship at an incredibly impressive speed. It took a second before Fox realized: He was trying to leap into the cargo bay. And as ridiculous as that idea was, if there was one person who could do it, it was Bill.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Fox yelled, as he looked over to Wolf to realize he was pointing his Blaster at Bill.

“ARE YOU KIDDING?”

“OR AT LEAST SET THE THING TO STUN!!”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WH-”

Wolf didn't have a chance to finish his sentence, as Bill had managed to make a jump into the cargo bay and swing a punch at Wolf, knocking him unconscious on the floor. A string of actions the duo had failed to notice as their argument had taken both their eyes off the ongoing situation.

Fox's muscle memory kicked in at what he had seen unfold, and without even considering it, he had pointed his blaster at Bill. The bulldog instantly doing the same. Forcing the two into an akward staredown.

Normally, in situations like these, Fox wouldn't even think to show signs of weakness. But he couldn't help himself. He just had to ask.

“Bill...why. Why are you doing this?”

“I..” the Bulldog replied, his breathing getting deeper “LOOK! I had no choice, okay dude?! Stop the ship!”

“STOP THE SHIP? BILL, WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT?”

“LISTEN TO ME DUDE! ITS FOR YA OWN DANG GOOD! PLEASE! STAND DOWN!”

Both men were visibly shaking now. The situation the two found themselves in was obviously taking quite the toll. And yet, in spite of this, neither of them were willing to stand down.

“PLEASE! BILL! JUST, TALK TO ME! I WANT TO KNOW WHY YO-”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Bill screamed, tears rolling down his face “IF YOU WON'T STAND DOWN I---I'LL!!”

It was as Bill finished screaming, that Fox realized his old friend was about to pull the trigger on his blaster. Things seemed to move in slow motion as the young fox digested this.

“Pull the trigger!” his internal voice yelled “You've got to pull it before he does or you're toast!”

Fox knew, deep down, that this voice was right. If he didn't fight back, he'd at best be out for the count. He didn't even want to consider the other possibility if Bill's blaster wasn't set to stun.

But no matter how hard Fox tried to even remotely squeeze his finger onto the trigger, his finger refused to move. He just couldn't do it. If surviving meant shooting one of his dear friends, he'd rather die.

Fox closed his eyes. Ready for whatever may happen next. One second went by and then a second, and then, somehow, a third. It was as Fox opened his eyes to try and uncover why he hadn't been shot yet. As he did, he saw quite the sight.

Wolf had regained consciousness, and was now in the middle of a struggle with Bill to take his blaster away from him. The two engaged in this little tug of war for a few seconds, before Wolf swiftly pulled the Blaster out of his hands and knocked him to the floor unconscious with a quick knee to his stomach.

It was with this that the cargo bay door shut behind them. With all the doors to the ship now closed, the team at least didn't have to worry about a laser show reducing them to ash. What they did have to worry about was being swung around by the ship wildly shaking them around, causing both Fox and Wolf to join their new guest on the floor and Slippy to stumble backwards onto a sofa in the next room.

“Welcome to Corneria air!” Falke said into an intercom system with her usual sarcastic tone “We'll be experiencing some tuberlance as we shake off these losers!”

The ship began to speed up and before long it was out of the small hangar and bolting down the runway. And it wasn't long before it had taken off, in spite of their pursuers final attempts to take it down with blaster fire. A few minutes later, the ship was out of Corneria's atmosphere. Although the group was sure there would be some attempt to pursue them, for now they had escaped.


	25. Chapter 25

Fox walked into the cockpit to see Falke controlling the ship. As he leaned over her, he noticed several red dots on the radar, representing some smaller ships that had begun pursuing them

“We've got some bogeys on our tail.” Said Fox, half to ensure Falke was aware of them

“Don't ya worry about it. Not for long!” Falke replied, flicking some switches on the control panels, causing the ship to gain in speed. And before long, it had entered lightspeed. Leaving their pursuers entirely in the dust.

It was as the ship did this, and Falke's input had become unessairy for a few select minutes, that she turned her attention to Fox

“Our new guest a friend of yours?”

“I uh, yeah.”

“Wait whaddya mean 'yeah'? I was uh, kiddin '”

Fox turned his gaze to the windshield, half to avoid Falkes eye contact, half to try and process the emotions he was feeling.

“You...don't remember him? He was at Fortuna a year ago? We went to Cornera flight academy together”

“Huh? What's a dude like that doin' takin' pot shots at us?”

“That's what I intend to find out” Fox replied, turning and walking out of the cockpit and back into the living room.

In the ships small living room, which was a small, tacky space with two small sofas for passengers to sit and a small table sitting in between them, squatted Wolf in front of one of the sofas, upon which Bill lay unconcious. He had just finished using handcuffs to restrain his recent assailant as they lay unconscious, before slowly patting him down to see if he had anything else worth worrying about on him. He found nothing. Which wasn't too surprising given he had left his blaster in the cargo when Wolf had knocked him unconscious. It probably hadn't hurt to check, though.

It was as Wolf finished patting the bulldog down, that he felt a presense enter from the cockpit and walk up behind him. Turning his head, he saw Fox, his reluctant ally.

“He awake?”

“Nah, out like a light” replied Wolf, rising from the almost squat like position he had held before, now fully turning to face Fox

“I see” answered Fox, anxiously sitting down on one of the sofas and leaning forward, keeping an eye on his old friend.

Wolf had half a mind to just excuse himself to the cargo bay, conversation seeming like a bothersome prospect. But he had to admit that he was curious about how Fox had acted

“Friend of yours?” asked Wolf, now leaning against one of the walls as he stared daggers into their unconscious guest.

“Yeah...at least I thought so”

“Well that explains how you were actin' back there” replied Wolf, pulling out his lighter from his jacket pocket and fiddling with it “That swing the boy gave me hurts like a bitch”

Fox began to stare into the floor, contemplating the events he had so recently seen unfold.

“I uh, appreciate you having my uh, back, back there...” Said Fox anxiously in an attempt to show some form of appreciation.

Wolf looked at the vulpine in slight surprise. He wasn't quite sure how to process that Fox Mcloud of all people, was attempting to thank him. 

“Please, I was just paying him back for thinking he could lay a finger on me” Wolf replied, after vetoing the idea of thanking Fox for his show of appreciation.

It was as Wolf idly placed a cigar into his maw and Fox awkwardly twiddled his thumbs, that the two heard a loud grunt of both exhaustion and pain from the sofa adjacent to them.

The two watched Bill regain conciousness, it taking a few seconds for him to fully awaken and take in exactly where he was. It was as he realized he was hand-cuffed, that he rushed upwards, sitting up, but stopping himself from fully standing up as he realized Fox was now staring directly at him.

The two quietly stared at each other. Tension you could cut with a knife beginning to fill the room.

“Well, that's my cue to take my leave” Wolf replied as he walked towards the cargo bay, both not wanting to get between what was to unfold between these two friends and out of not really being in a mood to hear the bickering that might also be about to happen as a result. “Catcha later, Mcloud”

As Wolf left and the cargo bay door automatically closed behind him, Fox began trying to get to the bottom of his friend's actions.

“Heya Bill”

“Fox...” Bill replied, wiggling around a little in an attempt to uncuff himself “You...you don't understand what you've done...”

“There's...a lot of things I don't understand anymore” Replied Fox, breaking eye contact with his friend “I thought I could trust you. And yet you led whatever the heck that was against us”

“Please, dude, ya....ya don't understand...I did what I had to do for ya own good! I Didn't have no darn choice!”

“For my own good!?” replied Fox, rising to his feet “Do you want to inform me how anything you've done has been for my own good!?”

“Dude! Please,” Said Bill, raising his own voice to match Fox's “I did what I did because I...didn't want ya to come to any sort of harm”

“What?”

Bill leaned forwards, now staring into a corner of the room “You've got no idea what the Generalismo is gonna unleash now that ya've blasted off planet...”

“He...made me a deal, Fox. If I could help ensure ya and ya buddies stayed on Corneria, he wouldn't lay a finger on any of ya”

“Yeah...he...said as much”

“Figures he'd get in contact with ya himself...look...I'm gonna level with ya here. The dude bugged me, threatened me if I didn't do what he said!”

“You....were bugged?”

“Yeah dude...yeah....” sighed Bill “He heard everythin' back at the bar and cafe...”

“Dang it!” yelled Fox, sitting back down onto the sofa “So he already knows what we're up to?”

“That you're heading off planet towards Aquas? Yeah. Yeah, he knows”

Fox shook his head. While he was relieved to have an explanation from Bill himself, the fact Pepper had him this deep in his pocket and that he knew their plans filled him with frustration.

“Well, I've said what I wanted to say to ya, dude. I understand if ya can't forgive me. Heck, I understand if ya wanna launch me outta the airlock.”

To Bill's surprise, Fox walked towards him before sitting right next to him.

“Wha...Fox...what are you”

It surprised Bill even more when he felt Fox reaching a hand behind him to uncuff him.

“Bill. I want you to listen to me. You're my friend.”

“Y-ya still consider me ya pal?” Bill replied as he felt the hand cuffs fall off of him

“You were a target of Pepper as much as the rest of us were” replied Fox, now rising to his feet once again “And if there's anything I can't stand it's when people mess with one of my friends...”

“F-fox...” Bill replied as tears began to well up in his eyes. 

“I want you to work with us again, Bill. We need as many hands on deck as we can possibly get. And there's nobody else I'd rather fight with” Said Fox as he turned, revealing to Bill tears had been welling up in his own eyes, and an awkward, almost forced smile hung on his face “Help us take down that scumbag!” 

Bill quickly rose up to his feet, rushing to embrace Fox in the biggest hug he could muster in spite of the pain his recent kick in the stomach had caused him

“Y-you've got it...ya big idiot”

Fox slowly wrapped his arms back around him in response. He was still in the middle of processing the cocktail of emotions the past hour had filled him with. But this at least, for now, filled him with comfort.


	26. Chapter 26

Wolf walked into the small, dark cargo bay. Not really having an appetite for the argument that was probably about to unfold between Fox and his friend. It was as he leaned against one of the walls, that he noticed Slippy, digging through some boxes.

Wolf quietly watched Slippy pull out and examine various metallic components. Looking them over and going into deep contemplation as he did. It was as he turned around that he noticed Wolf, and almost jumped out of his skin in surprise.

“W-WOLF! JEEZ!”

“Hey kiddo. Don't freak out. Its just me.”

“T-TH—THAT ISN'T R-REALLY RE-REASSURING CO-CONSIDERING YOU'VE T-TRIED TO KILL US S-SEVERAL TIM-TIMES!”

“Tch. I'll give you that, I suppose”

Slippy took deep breaths in a desperate attempt to calm himself down. A minute passed before he finally took one last, extremely deep breath, and was able to compose himself.

“S-s-so uh” said Slippy, as he sat down on a single nearby box, the metallic pieces and components resting on his lap “W-w-what br-brings yo-you in here?”

“I just felt didn't feel like dealin' with the nonsense in the other room”

“Ah-I u-uh I see...”

A dead silence hit the room for a few minutes. The two awkwardly avoiding eye contact in any manner they could. It was as Wolf blew out cigar smoke that he decided that the awkwardness was irritating him. So he decided to break the ice.

“So uh, whatcha got planned for all that scrap ya got there?”

“OH!” Slippy replied, in sudden excitement, his eyes lighting up “I'm hoping to the components for a Zed-Destablizer are here! It'd be really helpful for getting int-”

“Wait, hold on a second....Zed-Destablizer?”

“Y-yeah?”

“What is that?”

“Oh!!! A Zed Destablizer allows you to communicate with the electronic zeep field from which you can access various cheometric auras from whic-”

“WAIT WAIT WAIT” Replied Wolf, shaking his head in extreme confusion “Please...go back...what does ANY of that mean?”

“Ah! Well to start: the Electronic zeep field is when...well! Imagine two balls smashing together, except imagine those balls are made out of electricity and-”

“Pl...please stop”

“W-what?”

“I think I've heard enough”

“W-well...o-ok”

It was to Slippys surprise, that in spite of Wolf's obvious disinterest in his explanation, he quietly approached him before looking down at him fiddling with the various components he held.

“I have to admit though, kiddo. I am kinda curious how this all comes together”

“OH! Well I'm hoping, that if I put this and this together that I can...”

Slippy continued for several minutes, explaining and physically demonstrating how he hoped to put things together. And to his surprise, Wolf continued to silently listen. Not really understanding what was being said, but at the same time holding some level of interest.

\-----------------------------------------------

It had been five hours since the group had left Corneria. Falke continued to pilot the ship. It was a way more boring job than she was used to. but Thankfully, it was around 20 minutes before first of several shift changes would happen as she swapped places with Fox. As she was left alone in the ship as the rest of the group had things to handle in the adjacent rooms, that she found herself becoming weirdly introspective.

She knew she should probably focus on the group's mission. But it would be two whole days before this below military class clunker of a ship would reach Aquas. So she figured taking her mind off what was about to happen for at least a little while was alright.

She knew, deep down, that after everything was dealt with, that she couldn't exist in the same way she had been before. She had just had her eyes opened by Miyu and Fay to the extent that who she was before that just seemed extremely alien to her.

She knew, that every time the group referred to her as “Falco” that she felt her heart sink into her stomach. It was not a way she was going to be able to exist for much longer.

She had to tell them somehow. But that was easier said than done. How would the group take her sharing the recent revelations she had experienced? Would they even accept her? Would they still consider her family after that? These prospects filled her with more fear than she had felt in a long, long time.

It was as she contemplated these thoughts silently, that she heard the automatic door swing open before her. She couldn't take her eyes off of the controls. But she soon found out Fox had entered the room, as he sat on the co-pilot seat right next to him.

“Ya buddy doin' ok?” Falke inquired.

“Yeah we...we patched things up...as of today he's working with us”

Falke had suffered many lost friends over the years. So she was at least glad to hear that recent events hadn't pulled Fox and his dear friend apart.

“Well, I'm glad to hear workin' that old Mcloud charisma worked out”

“Charisma huh? I wonder about that.”

The two sat in silence for a few moments. Idly staring out into the expanse of space that lay in front of them behind a thin layer of glass. Before Fox began to speak again.

“Falco...I know you've noticed I haven't been exactly, leader material lately”

There was that name again. The name that made Falke want to scream as loud as she could. But she stomached this urge and attempted to continue the conversation.

“I'll say. What's ya point?”

“I've just...had a lot on my plate lately...and I shouldn't of ignored your attempts to reach out”

Falke was quite surprised. She thought she had been entirely subtle with her attempts to get her friend to open up, but apparently not.

“So...I wanna change that...is now a good time to talk?”

She honestly deeply cared about Fox, as he had taken her in when nobody else would. So she was happy to oblige

“Yeah. Hit me, Foxy”

Some of the things Fox opened up about were quite incredible to Falke. What he had seen when escaping Androsses base, the group that seemingly had quite the interest in his father, and some specifics about General Peppers actions.

It was then, that Fox began to open up about a more introspective topic that kinda hit home with Falke.

“I...I don't know what I would've done if Bill genuinely wanted us dead”

“Ya really attached to him, huh?

“I...I guess you could say that. There's just...something about him that makes me feel at ease...you know?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah its...just like a gentle warm feeling...he just makes me feel like everything will be ok? You know?”

“I'm sure its just because we're really great friends but you know”

Falke, being the bi disaster she was, wanted to scream at him basically describing romantic feelings for his friend before going on to say “we're just pals”. She held in most of those thoughts as she shook her head as if to say “Oh you poor confused fool”

Given her own experiences with sexuality. Falke felt obligated to point him in the correct direction.

“And you're sure you're just friends?”

“I...yeah?”

“Really?”

“y-yeah?”

“For real? Like you don't wanna wrap your arms around him? You don't wanna give him things like a gentle kiss?”

“I mean I guess I do, but we're just really great friends, ya know?”

“Fox... Can I tell you something?”

“Yeah, go for it”

“What you just described to me sounds like romantic attraction”

“I...whuh?”

“People who are 'just friends' generally don't want to give each other kisses on the mouth, Fox”

Fox suddenly looked into the distance, as if gears in his brain were now working overtime to comprehend what had just been said to him. Before it finally clicked.

“I...I mean I guess you're not wrong that I wish we were something more than friends”

“Yeah? Ya should look into that sometime then'”

The two continued to sit in silence as the conversation winded down. Fox silently appreciating his friend bearing with him.

It was then, with a deep breath, that Falke decided to take her chance.

“Fox... Can I, tell ya something”

“Yeah? Hit me”

“The truth is...I just....Well”

Falke sat in silence for a while. As she desperately tried to find the words.

“The truth is...I don't really think I feel like a b-”

It was then, as Falke was about to dump quite the bombshell, that the automatic door swung open once again. Slippy stepping inside the room.

“H-Hey g-guys...c-can yo-you come in the l-living r-room for a sec-second? The-theres som-something I need to go over”

It was with a deep sigh, that Falke abandoned her plan. And set the ship to auto pilot. She hoped she would get another chance to talk about her own feelings soon.


	27. Chapter 27

Two guards stood in front of a cell door in a small hallway. The floors and walls made out of metal and a lift standing on the other end of where the guards stood. They were armed with laser rifles and silently standing in place. Almost as if the duo were statues.

“Why we gotta guard this place? Weren't we supposed to have the week off?” one of the guards asked.

“Yeah...yeah we were.” replied the other

“So why are we on this rust bucket and NOT chillin' out under the sun?”

“Well, Mr.Knifey in there decided he wanted to cut up a couple of guards”

“So We're here because some dude decided to under staff this place with the help of a knife?”

“Basically”

“God we better be getting paid for th-”

it was before the guard could finish his sentence, that the elevator swung open with a loud beep. Two more guards entering the hallway from inside.

“Shift change!” One of the new guards greeted.

“Oh thank god!” replied one of the guards “I gotta pee something fierce! Catcha later!”

The two groups of guards passed each other. The older group entering the elevator, and the new group replacing their positions.

A few minutes went by, the new duo awkwardly looking around, before one of them pulled off their mask and helmet. Revealing the face of a young snow ape.

“Ugh. How dare I have to wear something SO gaudy and stuffy! Absolutely unbelievable!” the young ape complained as he threw the helmet on the floor.

“Ubgyghgdg UhgbHUFfF?” said the other guard. The helmet muffling anything he had to say.

“Pardon!?”

The other guard deeply sighed before throwing off his own helmet. Revealing the face of an old hare.

“Look ya'all. We're workin' with limited time here! We best strap up and get to work”

“Please, I'm on it already, Old man” replied Oikonny as he began to fiddle with a small control panel on the front of the door. Typing into it incredibly fast.

“Ya know how to operate that thing?”

“Well of course I do! I'm Andrew Oikonny. This is a piece of cake”

“Please don't gloat like that. It makes the feat ya'all are pullin' off here significantly less impressive”

“Please” Oikonny replied as he rolled his eyes “Andross himself gifted me with this talent. Besides, your plan would mean NOTHING if not for me”

Peppy deeply sighed in response. Even though he had to admit that this part of the plan was kind of reliant on Oikonny hacking the door.

Several minutes went by, the hallway falling into deep silence outside of the loud clacking of keys. Before a loud beep filled the room. The door slowly sliding open.

“Heh. Record time” Gloated Oikonny as Peppy stepped into the cell. The walls lined with an incredibly strong metal. There, on the cells bed, sat Leon. Who looked up at with surprise that he had a visitor. That surprise twisting itself into rage as he realized said visitor was a member of Star Fox.

“Heh.... This is a dangerous place for an old man like yourself to be wandering into...”

Peppy remained entirely silent. Walking deeper into the room, his eyes wandering around it, as if to look for something.

“Don't think you can ignore me! You fogey!” Leon yelled as he rose to his feet, now rushing towards Peppy. It was as he attempted to slam his body into him that Peppy almost effortlessly stepped aside, causing the lizard to slam against one of the metal walls, falling to the ground.

It was with this, that Andrew decided to step into the room. Shaking his head as he saw Leon on the ground.

“You louse! For the love of god! Get up off the floor!”

Leon looked up as he realized Oikonny was also present. Quietly chuckling as he did.

“Heheh...I see....you two are here to break me out?” he asked, slowly pulling himself up off the ground “A strange duo...but I'll take any exit from this pit”

“Not quite” Peppy replied

“What you're just leaving me here? You can't lock up my talents like this you know...I've got people to see and things to do!”

It was with this, that Peppy pulled out a metallic box, a small LCD on the front, various buttons on the top, and wires sticking out of it. It only took Leon a second to realize what he was seeing: This was a bomb.

“Oh! For me? Peppy...you're too kind!”

“Look. I can get ya'all out of here if ya follow my instructions...hold on to this and stay here... and when we return...well I'm sure ya'all will know what to do from there”

Leon had mixed thoughts on what was being purposed. He hated the prospect of being locked in this pit for even another hour. But on the other he couldn't really conceive of any other way he'd be getting out of here. And besides, it had been awhile before he had a chance to handle any sort of explosive.

“Hehe...I'll take it” replied Leon as he basically snatched the explosive out of Peppy's hand “Just don't take too long...or this thing might be going off early”

“Please don't do that” pleaded Oikonny

“I don't take orders from either of you. Keep that in mind before either of you consider wasting my time for very long”

It was with this. That the two quietly took their leave. Shutting the door once again. And using the shift change that occurred an hour later to swap back into their prison outfits and return to their cell. The two hoped that the rest of their plan would fall into place as well.


	28. Chapter 28

The group had assembled around the ships living room after Slippy had requested their presence for a makeshift meeting. Everyone except Slippy himself had sat down on one of the two sofas. Wolf and Falke reluctantly sharing one of them and Bill and Fox more enthusiastically sharing the other.

“R-Right” suttered Slippy, attempting to not let stage fright overcome him “I-I wanted to go over our p-plan”

Slippy quietly placed the folder Wolf had given to them earlier on the table before anxiously flicking through it as he searched for particular pages to pull out.

“Tch” interrupted Wolf “I already have a great plan”

“Oh?” replied Fox “You wanna let us know what it is?”

“Please. Its as simple as blasting everyone there to dust. Nothing more. Nothing less”

“That...really doesn't count as a plan”

“I dunno dude. I kinda like it?”

“Heh...at least one of you understands. In my field of work you quickly discover plans are only made to fall apart”

Slippy finally pulled out a few of the pages. Placing them on the table for the rest of the group to see. “A-anyway”

“T-the structure of the b-black s-site is v-very m-m-much l-like an oi-oil rig...” informed Slippy as he gestured at a blue print of the black site “I-its mo-mostly surrou-surronded by wa-water and doe-doesnt allow ve-very man-many ent-entry points that do-don't ra-raise an al-alarm....”

Slippy then pointed to the bottom of the structure, to the blacksites beams that kept it held up above the water.

“Ex-except for th-these” he said as he pointed directly at them

“Are you....” interrupted Falke “Suggestin' we climb up those things?”

“I-it's...n-not i-ideal but-but I-it's th-the only en-entry po-point I-i can th-think of”

“Surely there MUST be a better one then THAT?” Wolf asked as he rudely began to rest his legs on the table.

“We-well tha-thats” Slippy said as his hands shook, awkwardly pointing to what seemed to be a heliport on the blueprint “The o-only ot-other en-entry point i-is the heli-heliport an-and that's guar-guarded by anti air mi-missiles...”

“Tch...” Wolf Sighed as he looked into the floor.

“A-anyway o-one of the reasons I-I picked out this sh-ship was be-because of it-its airb-boat mode”

Slippy then stood in silence for a few moments, looking around at the other occupants of the room as he did

“S-so i-if there ar-are no other ob-objections I'd li-like to move on to my ne-next point...” Slippy said, pulling out another piece of paper from the folder.

On the document, were pictures of a small piece of electronic equipment that looked almost like an incredibly tiny speaker alongside various locations it had been installed in the walls of the blacksite.

“N-now w-we co-come to o-one of the b-black sites bi-bigger issues” Slippy said, gesturing at the document “Th-the Bio Sc-scanners...”

“Bio Scanners, huh?” Fox asked.

“Yes...y-yes Fox. They're ea-easily the biggest ob-obstacle he-here. A-as they sc-scan the en-entire facility ev-every 30 minutes....” Slippy explained.

“Such a thing is possible?” Interjected fox

“I-I w-was qu-quite surpr-surprised t-too. Boy I'd love to get my hands on one....”

Slippy went quiet for a second. His mind swimming with the possibility of being able to examine this strange tech he only recently became aware of.

“A-anyway...it-it scans the entire fa-facility to check if-if someone in-inside the black site i-is supposed to b-be th-there. A-and if it fi-finds an-anything of-off a-an alarm is raised”.

Falke rested her arms on the back of the sofa, sitting back “Well, ain't that quite the thorn to grabbin' gramps outta that place”

“I'll say” concurred Fox, twiddling his thumbs “Do we even know where Peppy is being held?”

“Th-that w-we d-do!” Answered Slippy, pulling out another set of documents from the folder. This time they showed the floor plans of various floors of the facility.

“H-he sh-should be ke-kept on C-cell 02 of- ba-basement flo-floor 2...wh-which is whe-where Wo-wolf comes i-in...”

“Oh?” replied Wolf, showing interested now that he was being involved in the plan finally

“Y-yes...Fr-from wh-what I-I rem-remember...yo-you're an ex-expert a-at getting con-conventional locks o-open?”

“Please... I'm THE expert!”

“W-w-well th-then...i-if yo-you could...ge-get th-this lock open” explained Slippy, pulling out another document out of the folder, this time of the particular lock cells in the facility used and handed it to wolf.

“It'll be done in seconds, frog boy”

“R-right....now fo-for my nex-next topic..ge-getting to th-that poi-point...”

Slippy pulled out an additional pair of documents. A floor plan of the floor the group would be entering from and the other filled to the brim with pictures of uniforms guards in the facility wore.

“A-a group of ex-exactly fi-five pe-people gua-guard the helipad to the no-north of the black site” he explained “Along wit-with the fi-five uni-uniforms we-we'll be ta-taking fro-from them....”

“Hehe” interrupted Wolf “I like ya thinkin' lil man”

“Not often I get to break out the ol' Bill Grey style Kung fu! Lemme at em, bro!”

“A-anyway” Said Slippy, trying to do his best to roll with the sudden interruptions from his comrades “Fr-from the-there we-we'll enter thr-through the back entrance..wh-which has weak-weaker security a-and ta-take a li-lift do-down to the fl-floor Pe-peppy is o-on... A-and ho-hopefully fro-from there we-we'll be ab-able to fool the gu-guards and ta-take one of their sh-ships...”

Slippy quietly began to gauge his comrades reactions as he finished talking. Ensuring nobody seemed overly upset over what he had planned out.

“S-so...an-anyone ha-have anythi-anything to say?”

“I mean I liked my plan better” snarked Wolf “But ya obviously put time into this plan, so I'll let you have it.”

“S-so we'we're all i-in agreement, th-then?”

The group quietly nodded in response. It was then that Fox rose to stand and put a hand on Slippy's shoulder.

“You're a life safer slipps. Don't know what we'd be doing without you”

“Cool” Falke said as she rose to her feet “Thanks n all that. I gotta get back onto my shift. I don't trust this thing to autopilot itself for much longer, ya know?”

“O-oh!” Slippy said, clapping his hands together “M-meeting adorned, then!”

The group took this as a cue to resume their regular routines and placements on the small ship. Slippy himself returning to the cargo to continuing experimenting with the components he had found earlier. He was still anxious about their chances, but he was at least glad this part of the process had gone well


	29. Chapter 29

Peppy lay awake. Staring dead into the ceiling. Sleep had eluded him ever since he had been sent to this pit. Thoughts filled his mind about how he had gotten to this point. His love for James Mcloud, his years at Star Fox, and the “deal with the devil” he had made with General Pepper. His mind particularly hung on the words Pepper had told him two days ago. That Star Fox would be coming here. He wasn't against the idea of being rescued. But them coming here would cause those he deeply cared about to once again be thrown in harms way. Every time something like this happened, he feared he'd have to see Fox face a similar fate that James had faced.

In an attempt to try to take his mind off of these thoughts. He looked to his side, towards Andrew, who was also wide awake and sitting on his bed, despite the late hours. He was about to consider trying to start a conversation with the snow ape, when the cell door swung open.

“Prisoner 21293!” announced the guard as they stepped into the room, referring to Peppy “The boss has business with ya!”

Peppy rose from his bed with a sigh. He didn't enjoy the prospect of another conversation with Pepper. But he didn't see any other option. It was as he walked towards the guard to follow him, that Andrew decided to pipe up.

“*JUST* HIM” yelled Andrew, rising from his bed “IF THERE'S ANYONE HERE WHO DESERVES AN AUDIENCE WITH THAT LOUSE, It's ME! ANDREW OIK-”

“Jeez shut up” yelled the guard back, shrugging his arms “Get back on your bed or I'll have t-”

“Stand down, boy” said a familiar voice from outside the room “I'm willing to do Oikonny a favor and take him along!”

“Sir!” replied the guard as General Pepper also stepped into the cell. Smugly looking around the room.

Before long, the four walked down a hallway after just departing from an elevator. Peppy and Oikonny walked in-between both the guard and Pepper. They walked like this for a solid two minutes, before they found themselves in a lavish looking office. Bright red carpet and expensive looking wood making up the floor and green wallpaper lining the walls. At the other end of the room from where the group stood was an extremely well maintained looking desk and bookshelves.

General Pepper walked towards his desk and before long, had sat down on his extremely comfortable office chair. It was then that he gestured for the guard to leave

“Gotcha boss” Said the guard as he opened the door to leave. Loudly slamming the door behind him. It was with this, that Oikonny decided to take his chance.

“YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID, PEPPER!” Andrew screamed, as he pulled out the knife he had quietly taken from Leon behind Peppy's back earlier. Rushing towards his target at full speed.

“My my...manners, young man” Pepper said, clicking his fingers.

It was with this, that a green light flashed over Oikonny's arm for just a second. Making him scream out and making his arm loudly crunch, launching the knife from his hand. The pain becoming so intense that he was soon on the floor in the fetal position. Twitching as a result.

Peppy now had confirmation for his fears. Ever since their scuffle in the field, he had suspected something had been up with the general. And now he had displayed proof of this. Clear as crystal.

The general began to pour some wine out of a bottle into a wine glass. So casually to the point it was as if nothing had happened.

“Now, Peppy my boy!” Pepper said as he finished taking a big sip from his glass “It's a good thing you found time to visit lil ol' me! There's a couple of things I'd LOVE to show you!”

With these words, Pepper pushed a button under his desk and audio began to fill the room from unseen speakers.

What Peppy heard horrified him. It seemed to be audio of Fox Mcloud and Bill Grey talking. The sound of a crowded place behind their talking for ambiance. They touched on various sensitive topics...including Fox's plan to try to bail Peppy out of this dump.

The fact Pepper had SOMEHOW managed to record Fox without his knowledge and pry him to talk about topics like this was something that filled him with an unquenchable fear.

“H-how did ya...” stuttered Peppy, fear obvious in his voice.

“Well it was a simple endeavor, my dear boy...I just had to hire an errand boy!”

“A...an erran' boy?”

“Yes... I believe he goes by Bill Grey?”

This made Peppy's heart sink even deeper. He knew Fox would tell Bill absolutely anything. Any secrets or plans would easily end up being known by Pepper as a result of this.

“Now now, my friend!” Pepper said, rising from his chair and pulling Peppy out of his daze “I have much, much more I'd like to show you!”

Pepper pulled out a small remote out of his pocket. As he pushed the button, the bookcase behind the desk began to slide open. Revealing a sight that Peppy couldn't believe.

“Wha...what did....what did ya DO” Peppy yelled as loud as he could. The sight he was being shown proving impossible for him to process.


	30. Chapter 30

Night had fallen on the planet of Aquas. The group had begun their already hour long climb of the black sites support beams, the ship they had arrived in stood still on the waves below them, it set into its air boat mode.

They continued to climb for what seemed like hours. Till finally, Fox found himself being the first to pull himself up onto the platform.

He quietly looked around as the rest of the group pulled themselves up. The platform was way more laid back then he had expected. Two piles of crates sat near where he was crouching, A big transport ship sat idle smack dab in the middle of it, Two guards stood near the edge of the platform, and another duo stood on guard around both the left and right of a gray mechanical door.

The group quickly split into two groups that shuffled over to the duo of boxes, hiding behind them. Fox, Wolf and Bill hid behind the boxes on the left, and Slippy and Falke hid behind the ones on the left

“Ok...” whisperered Fox to the rest of the group “Slippy and Falco...take out the group near the edge... Wolf and Bill, you're with me...”

“WHATCHA SAY DUDE?” Bill bellowed.

“Jeez...keep....keep it down....”

“Ok. Gotcha dude....what're we up to, again?”

“We....we're gonna....look just follow me ok?”

The group put their plan into motion. Falke and Slippy springing into action first, quietly sneaking up behind the duo quietly looking out over the ocean.

“Do ya...think there's life under there?” they overheard one of the guards say

“Under where?” the other replied

“Under there my man! Under the water”.

“Well yeah I mean of course there is. There's like, fishies and shit under there”.

“No that's...not what I mean... I mean like, intelligent life!”

“Hey come on now! My uncle was a fish! I'm gonna take that personna-”

It was as this guard felt a tap on his soldier, that he stopped talking to turn around. Seeing a short toad standing in front of him.

“H-hey th-there....”

“Hi....How ya doin'?....Hey...hang on a seco-”

The guard didn't have a chance to finish, as Falke rushed in from just outside the guard's field of vision, and quickly wrapped both their necks around her hands before slamming both of their heads together. Knocking the duo out instantly. It was with this, that the other duo of guards noticed what was unfolding.

“HEY!” Screamed one of the guards, pulling his pistol out of his holster “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOI-”

Then, Wolf and Fox descended from inside the shadows. Swinging their fists into both of the guards, almost in-sync in with each other. A action which also knocked both of the guards out as they fell flat on the ground.

“Damn dudes!” Said Bill, also revealing himself from the shadows he had hidden in “That was sick as hell!”

“Tch” replied Wolf “I don't need your approval.”

It was as the group got prepared to change into the guards uniforms, that they began to realize something that, in the rush of pulling off their plan, they had failed to notice.

“H-hey...w-weren't the-there supposed to b-be f-five people here?”

As the group recalled their planning process, they remembered that the document revealing guard positions did indeed state that five were supposed to be here.

“Ugh jeez....” Complained Fox “We haven't got time for this! One of us is gonna have to stay behind”

“W..w...wha! But F-Fox... w..we ca-”

“I'll stay behind” Wolf suddenly said “Those uniforms are FAR too gaudy for my tastes anyway.

“Heh...that's good by me” Replied Falke

“Don't get your hopes up. I'll catch up one way or another.”

With this, the four quickly rushed to throw on their uniforms, having already wasted enough precious time resolving this.

The group entered the facility in full. Walking down a long metallic hallway as quickly as they could without arousing suspicion. Eventually, they reached their target. A small elevator that led to the floor that Peppy was hopefully stored on.

Bill quietly pressed the button and the group heard the elevators motors spring into life. Slowly dragging it up to their floor. Before long it had arrived and the doors swung open with a loud “DING”

Bill stepped into the lift and the rest of the group was about to follow, before they heard someone yell “HEY!” from behind them

The group turned their heads to face where the sound had come from. Revealing that a guard in the same uniform they were wearing was quickly approaching.

Fox knew ignoring him and walking into the lift would be incredibly suspicious. So he gestured to Bill to go down as casually as he possibly could.

Bill replied with a quiet nod. Getting the lift to close its doors and begin its movement downwards with a simple push of a button as the guard finally caught up with the rest of the group.

“Hey! Ain't ya aware there ain't supposed to be any shift changes at these hours?” The guard complained “None of ya are supposed to be goin' down there!”

“O-oh r-really. I-I uh... fo-forgot....”

Bill rushed out of the elevator as quickly as he could as the doors swung open, completely disregarding appearing inconspicuous, with only getting to Peppy before the Bio Scanners set off an alarm with the scan it performed every half hour.

With his speed, it wasn't long before the cell Peppy apparently was inside was in his sights. As his eyes began to focus he saw quite the surprising sight: Wolf O'donnel standing in front of the door, fiddling with the lock.

“Took ya long enough” Replied Wolf as Bill stopped dead in his tracks behind him “Where's everyone else?”

“Wuh-whoa dude! How did ya get over here?”

“First: I have my ways. Second: Answer my question”

“Oh uh! There was a hold up, brah. They shouldn't be too long though...I hope!”

With those words, Wolf had finished his work. Swinging the door open with a gentle shove.

As they looked inside, they saw exactly who they wanted to see. However, sweat washed down his face, and he was rocking back and forth out of great stress.

“Wh-whaddya all want! Haven't ya done enough!!” Screamed Peppy, without even looking outside his cell.

“Whoa! Pops Ya okay?” Bill replied, his concern obvious as he stepped into the cell.

“Th...that voice” Peppy replied, finally looking at the duo who had entered. An incredibly blank look painted on his face.

“What did ya DO!” Peppy suddenly screamed, rising from his bed as he pulled out a knife and began wildly swinging it around “WHAT'S YA GAME?  
WHAT DID YA DO TO FOX?”

Peppy began to rush towards Bill, planning to correct whatever wrong he assumed he had caused.


	31. Chapter 31

Bill quickly dodged out of the way, causing Peppy to miss him and instead stab his knife directly into the wall. It was as Peppy attempted to fruitlessly pull it out, that Bill decided to pipe up once again.

“DANG DUDE! I DUNNO WHAT MADE YA BLOW A FUSE LIKE THIS! BUT WE GOTTA HURRY! WE'VE ONLY GO-”

“BE QUIET YA DANG ROACH! Peppy screamed in reply, now ceasing his attempts to retrieve his knife entirely, turning to face Bill “I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU AND PEPPER HAVE PLANNED, BUT GOSH DANG IT, I'M GONNA STO-”

Peppy wasn't given a chance to finish, as he heard several footsteps behind him.

“GOT YA BUDDIES TO BACK YA UP HUH? WELL THAT AIN'T NO PROBLEM, I CA-”

Peppy felt shock wash over him as he turned around and his assumption that more guards had entered was shattered. And instead the rest of Star Fox stood before him.

“F-Fox” Peppy stuttered, before breaking down in tears and wrapping Fox in the tightest hug he had ever felt.

Fox had to explain everything that had occurred to Peppy in an incredibly truncated form as a result of the extremely strict time limit. However, being brought up to speed seemed to do little to lessen Peppy's tension. He sat back down on his bed. Both to try to digest the information given him, and to try and deal with the extreme stress.

“Y...Ya'all gotta get outta here...fast....”

“Tch” sneered Wolf “We're working on it old man”

“Nah! Ya don't understand! Ya'all shouldn't of even COME HERE!”

“Wh....what do you mean?” asked Fox, sitting on the bed adjacent to Peppy

“I...ya....ya see....”

Peppy rested his head in his hands and deeply sighed.

“Ya....ya'all gotta get outta here...ya gotta leave me behind...”

“What!” yelled Fox “W...we can't do that! I'm not gonna leave you behind!”

It was as this argument was about to rage on, that a loud, almost fire alarm sound began to fill the facility.

“W-W-WHAT?” Yelled Slippy “T-T-That's Im-Impossible! W-we still h-have 18 m-minutes!!”

A familiar voice soon followed the alarms, speaking from unseen speakers.

“Ah... Team StarFox... I see you found your way here! I trust my directions were accurate? Traffic not keep you very long?”

“Pepper...” Falke replied, having quietly sat in a corner up to this point.

“I must say, I deeply appreciate the gesture of coming all this way to see little old me. However, we aren't taking guests at the second I'm afraid!”

“Pepper!!” Yelled Peppy, rising to his feet “LET EM GO!! HAVEN'T YA DONE ENOUGH?”

“Oh...that's where you're wrong...my dear friend...I haven't done NEARLY ENOUGH”

Pepper let out a deep cough, before continuing his spiel

“Now, which one of you did I talk to....ah yes! Falco!”

“God, get to the point, Old Man” Falke replied. Annoyed both by his ego and the utterance of that name.

“Very well...the short version of it is: we had a deal. All you had to do was stay on Cornera. And now that you've broken our terms, I'm afraid I have no choice!”

“Deal?” Replied Falke “As if we'd agree to anythin' you had to say!”

“Well I see this discussion is going absolutely nowhere. Very well...”

“Commence Code 7QHDQ” Pepper said, before cutting off his transmission and the alarms began to blare even louder.

“Dangit!” Yelled Peppy “CODE ZQHDQ!?”

“W-w-what does th-that mean?” Slippy asked.

“It means we gotta high tail it the heck outta here! I ain't stayin' in this dang cage now that he's said that!”

It was with this, that the whole group rushed out of the cell. The rest of the group was about to go back the way they came, When they were stopped by the sight of a group of guards rushing towards them.

“That way is probably a no go, ya'all!” Yelled Peppy “I got a better idea! Follow me!”

The group began a mad dash in the opposite direction of what they initially had planned. Keeping quite a distance from the guards who now pursued them.

It was as the group kept up this high pace, that Fox turned his head for a brief moment. And noticed that the guards were waving around tasers, rather than anything lethal or more effective: they had intentons of taking the group alive.

They bolted around the corner, and into a small lift. Gaining a brief moment of respite as they piled in and the doors closed behind them, and they began their descent downwards.

It was in this quiet moment...that Fox suddenly wrapped his Arms around Peppy. Quietly sobbing.

“F-Fox...y-ya ok there?”

“Y...yeah...I'm I'm fine” Said Fox, retreating from the hug and wiping his eyes “I...I just thought I'd never see you again...”

“Fox....”

“L...lets get outta this dump, yeah?” Replied Fox, trying to push himself back into focusing on the situation at hand.

A few minutes later, the elevator doors swung open, much to the surprise of the guards who stood near a cell door on the other end of the hallway. Within a second, Fox and Wolf had swung out of the lift, firing off their blasters almost in sync, knocking the two guards unconscious.

The group rushed towards the door. Wolf cracking his knuckles as he realized the door was secured by a keypad.

“I got this one, rookies.”

“Wait... Do you even know how to operate that thing?” asked Fox.

“Please” replied Wolf as he slammed the keypad with his fist as hard as he could. Fox expected this to break it, but to his surprise a “access granted” jingle played instead “I'm somewhat of an expert.”

“What...how did you...huh...but how...I” Fox fruitlessly asked as the rest of the group, seemingly content to ask fewer questions, rushed into the solitary confinement cell.


	32. Chapter 32

The group rushed into the cell, Wolf leading the group. It was as he entered, he was relieved to see both Leon and Andrew inside, squatting in one of the corners over something. As Leon turned his head to see who entered, a wry smile hit his face.

“Heh...took you long enough...boss...”

“Hope you've been behaving yourself off the leash, Lizard boy” replied Wolf.

“Please...with all due respect, you couldn't leash me if you tried, Boss.”

Wolf's relief at seeing his allies in one piece was lessened a little as he leaned over the duo to find they were currently in the process of arming a small cube shaped explosive.

“Well evidently...considering you SOMEHOW managed to find a god dang bomb in here”

“Oh he's not QUITE that good, I'm afraid” chimed in Oikonnny. “A gift from Star Fox of all things!”

“We...don't exactly remember giving you THAT” Fox suddenly said, walking towards the now three people who squatted over the bomb.

Andrew rose to his feet and turned to face Fox upon hearing this voice. Rage washing over his body.

“YOU!” he yelled, walking up to Fox “WHAT RIGHT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO STAND IN FRONT OF ME?”

“Look... I'm not exactly comfortable with this either...but we don't exact-”

“QUIET! I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY DEAR UNCLE...WE SETTLE THIS HERE, MCLO-”

It was then, that loud rhythmic beeping filled the room from the corner Andrew had just come from.

“WE...WE'LL SETTLE THIS SOMEWHERE ELSE! EVERYONE OUT!”

The entire group quickly ran out of the cell as the beeping got faster and faster. Leon was the last to exit, loudly slamming the cell door behind him. Several members of the group feared they would be caught in the explosion, but after a loud, ear shattering bang, it turned out that the wall between them and the bomb was made out of quite sturdy stuff.

“Ok everyone! Follow me!” commanded Peppy as he rushed back into the very room they had just set off an explosive inside. The rest of the group followed him. With varying degrees of enthusiasm.

It was as the group entered, they discovered that the cell had remained mostly undamaged, aside from one key difference: a huge hole had now been blown open in the corner of the room where the bomb had exploded

“I.... I can't believe that WORKED” Andrew said...leaning over the hole, looking down into it “H...how did you know this would work?”

“Well...what can I say” Peppy replied “I have my ways, ya'all.”

The group slowly jumped down the hole one by one...now finding themselves in a submarine bay filled to the brim with submarines... Peppy's escape plan was now almost complete.

Peppy quickly threw the rest of what he had planned into action. Commanding Slippy, Falke, Leon, Andrew, and Bill to get the submarine ready to leave, while the rest of them rushed to the docking bays command room that was a few doors away from them.

It was as they swung open the doors, that another unexpected surprise awaited them.

General Pepper sat on a fancy office chair in front of the command computer. Screens and screens filled with live footage of various areas of the facility. He had been watching their every move and had been expecting them.

“Quite the plan you brewed up there, Ol boy” Pepper greeted, pouring yet another glass of wine and turning his office chair to face the group “I must say, it'd be more impressive if you hadn't relied on information I gave to you when we worked together....”

“You!” Peppy replied, clenching his hands together “After all ya've done to us that's just the start of what I'll take back from ya!”

“UGH!” Wolf said as pulled out his blaster from his holster in one swift motion, pointing it directly towards Peppers head “If there's anything I hate more than traitors, its people who talk far too much!”

“Please” Pepper replied to the young Wolf's threats “Even if you COULD shoot me... I wouldn't di-”

A bright flash and loud bang filled the groups eyes and ears as Wolf discharged his blaster, launching the General backwards off of his chair and onto the cold, unforgiving metal floor. Both blood and the wine he was drinking covered his body. The red color of both making them hard to tell apart.

“TCH...the ones who are all talk always go down the easiest...”

A dead silence hit the room for a few moments, before Wolf piped up again.

“What are you waiting for, old man! Get the submarine doors opened!”

“I...uh...yeah... I...uh, gotcha” replied Peppy, trying to wipe away the dazed confusion from the speed at which Peppers apparent demise had unfolded.

Peppy sat down on the chair, still warm from where his enemy sat just mere moments ago, and began typing onto a keyboard as fast as he could, loud keyboard klacks filling the room.

It was as Wolf left the room to guard the door they had entered through, that Fox looked down at Peppers body...a visceral mix of feelings flowed through his body at the sight of this. Thankfully, his cap had fallen on his head and covered most of the damage the blast would have caused, but still. He wasn't sure whether to feel joy or sadness. His recent actions filled him with anger. But there was a time when he quite respected the general.

With a deep breath...he squatted down in front of the generals body and began to search his pockets. His curiosity about Peppers motivations was just something he couldn't quench the thirst of. And he hoped maybe he had something on him that would shed some light on the whole ordeal.

His trouser pockets yielded no results. No relevant ones, at least. All he had in those was a half-eaten bag of mints. His jacket pocket, however, would yield more relevant results.

Fox felt a small, metal and round object touch his hands as he reached into the jacket pocket. Holding it tight, he pulled it out to reveal it was a small, golden locket.

He clicked it open, revealing that a quite dated photo lay inside. A photo of General Pepper, Andross, and surprisingly, his father, all standing together. All of them holding big bright smiles for the camera.

It was as Fox tried to digest the information the locket provided, that the door in front of him swung open. And to his disbelieve, a man he thought he'd never see in person again stood before him:

His father: James Mcloud.


	33. Chapter 33

James stared at his son blankly. Standing as still as a statue in front of the door he had entered from

“F-father?!” stuttered Fox as he struggled to process what he was seeing before him: His father, apparently long deceased, once again stood before him.

Peppy quietly watched this unfold. Sweat dripping down his face as he struggled to speak. He wanted to stop this dead in its tracks. But he couldn't move a single muscle.

“I... I knew you weren't dead!!” Fox said as relief washed over his voice. And he opened his arms wide to begin to wrap his long-lost father in his arms.

As Fox embraced his father. A soft warmth washed over his body...

A soft warmth that was cut short, as Fox suddenly felt a sharp pain strike his stomach.

As he was shoved out of the embrace, Fox looked down at his stomach and realized he had been stabbed. White light filled his vision as he fell onto the floor. The pain proving too much to handle.

“GOSH DANG IT!” Screamed Peppy, finally rising from his chair and pulling out his blaster, pointing it at his old friend “D-DON'T PUSH ME! I-I'LL SHOOT!”

The older Fox just blankly stared at the hare in response. Not a single word being said in reply.

“heh heh heh.....”

“W-what....wh-who.....”

Peppy looked down at the floor for the source of the laughter. Only to find General Pepper seemingly rising from his grave. Springing back up almost like a rake that had been stepped on. Now standing fully up. His arms crossed.

Peppy struggled to comprehend what had just occurred. Any courage he had mustered up to fire his shot had disintegrated.

“Please....” sneered the General “Didn't I tell you I wouldn't di-”

Pepper looked around the room, realizing that the man who had shot him no longer stood in the room.

“Well, that takes quite a bit of theatrics out of my entrance...” Pepper said as he snapped his fingers “Well, never mind...”

As Pepper snapped his fingers, the door behind him swung open. And two more exact copies of James Mcloud stepped into the room. Both pointing their blasters at Peppy.

“I believe we've done this little charade long enough. You helped me bring the raw materials I needed here.”

“W...whaddya me-mean....raw material....”

“The boy...obviously.... I mean he's quite a lil more stabbed than I'd like, but he's workable...”

“Ya..YA AIN'T TAKIN' HIM!”

“Please...old friend, you don't have a say in the matter! You and your friends will die here!”

It was as Peppy shook like a leaf, unable to shoot, that he heard the door open behind him. A bright red blaster shot flew past him. Hitting a fire extinguisher that was propped up on the other corner of the room, near the group that had pointed their weapons at Peppy. Confusion filled the room, everyone near the extinguisher was basically blinded and coughing for air

As Peppy turned, he realized Wolf was the one who fired the shot.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, OLD MAN!” Wolf yelled into the room that was rapidly filling with smog “GRAB FOX AND GET OUT OF THERE!”

Peppy sprung into action, using the confusion that had unfolded as camo he rushed over to Fox's position and lifted his unconscious body over his shoulder. Then as quickly as he had done this, he rushed out of the room.

“NO!” Pepper loudly screamed as he finally realized what was happening amongst the confusion “MEN! AFTER THEM!”

The trio ran as fast as they could at a crazed pace. Even Peppy running as fast as he could in spite of both his age and the young fox he had propped up against his shoulders.

Before long, the trio had climbed onto the top of the submarine as the alarms continued to loudly blare. Opening up the hatch and loudly slamming it behind them as they climbed inside.

The two split up. Peppy rushing to the med bay of the sub to aid Fox, and Wolf heading to the control room. As he entered, he saw the rooms only other occupant, Slippy. 

“WE GOTTA LAUNCH!” Screamed wolf, making Slippy, who sat at the controls, jump out of his skin.

“I-I'm o-on it!” Slippy stuttered “W-we've g-got p-plenty of ti-time!”

“YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!” Wolf basically screamed as several loud laser blasts rocked the outside of the sub “WE REALLY, REALLY DON'T! DO YOU WANNA LIVE? HURRY IT UP!”

“O-ok! Th-this is a risky m-move and m-migh-”

“JUST DO IT!”

“O-OK!”

Slippy frantically pressed a long series of buttons. The lights that illuminated the room flickering on and off. The operations Slippy was making the sub perform seemingly caused it quite a bit of strain 

“C-come o-on! Y-you c-can make i-it!”

Slippy crossed his fingers as he finished his series of inputs. The submarines engine and power systems fully cutting out.

“What did you do!?”

“J-just g-give it a se-second.....o-okay?”

The submarine stood in silence for a solid minute. The tension that washed over the room so heavy you could probably cut it with a knife.

Thankfully, after another minute, the submarine once again sprung to life. Although the lights remained off, the engine was now operating at full bolt.

Outside, General Pepper and an uncountable number of soldiers stood, all taking wanton blasts at the submarine that had been commandeered.

“Fools....” Pepper thought internally “They'll never be able to cycle the power in time before we-”

It was with that thought, that the submarine cycled the power and in the blink of an eye, submerged itself.

Pepper grabbed the commanding officer of the black sites unit, shaking him back and forth.

“THEY CYCLED THE POWER IN TIME BEFORE WE-”

“SIR! PLEASE STOP SHAKING ME!”

“YOU SAID THEY COULDN'T POSSIBLY CYCLE THE POWER IN TIME BEFORE WE-”

“SIR I KNOW I SAID THAT BUT I!”

The general tossed the officer away with a groan, before again snapping his fingers.

“GATHER ALL THE VEHICLES YOU CAN AND BEGIN PURSUIT!”


	34. Chapter 34

The submarine flung itself through the open door of the dock at a ridiculous speed. Slippy's overclocking procedure proving to be a lifesaver.

Slippy cracked his knuckles and leaned back in his chair. Content that everything was working as intended.

With this, Bill, Falke, and Andrew entered the room.

“Ay!” interjected Falke “Why'd the power go out?”

“O-oh!” replied Slippy. The wind being taken out of his sails “T-that was p-part of m-me pow-power cycl-cycling the en-engine t-to....”

“Eh...whatever" replied Falke, putting a hand on Slippy shoulder “I'm not fond of it bein' dark but ya got us outta there. Thanks froggy boy. Ya did a good job...”

“Well, dudes....any of ya got any matches?” asked Bill “I nearly tripped over fifty dang times on the way here, and it's kinda crampin' my styl-”

Before Bill could finish, extremely loud alarms began to blare through the entire sub. An almost uncountable number of red dots showing up on the huge radar screen that was placed in front of Slippy's desk.

“O-OH N-NO!” Slippy yelled.

“What the heck is all this!” asked Andrew.

“T-thi...this....i-is an...uncountable amount of sh-ships th-they're sen-sending ou-our way....”

“ALL THOSE RED DOTS ARE SHIPS?”

“Y-yes....”

Wolf clenched his fists. Even he knew, deep down, that even he would have no chance off dealing with this absurd amount of ships Pepper had sent their way.

“Th-there's on-only one th-thing I-I can d-do...” Slippy said as he began to press several buttons and flick many switches in fast succession.

“Wh-whoa...whatcha doin'!” Asked Falke.

“I-I-I'm se-setting the su-sub to a-an ev-even low-lower power mo-mode...it-it'll ma-make u-us undet-undetectable by ra-radar....”

It was with two final button presses, that the sub suddenly stopped its extreme speed...slowly slowing down to a snail's pace. As the power continued to be drained from the rest of the ship's systems, all the screens in the command center flickered off, making the already dark room even darker.

____________________________________________________________________

Elsewhere, Pepper slammed his fist into his desk as the small blip on his monitor that represented the sub that had been so rudely taken from him suddenly vanished

“NO!” he screamed, much to the discomfort of the same unit commander that had been shaken about by the general just a short time ago “HOW DID THEY! HOW COULD THEY OF....”

The general quietly began rubbing his temples as the realization hit him: they had gone into an absurdly low power mode to hide their radar signature...and it had worked.

“That's....they'll never make it anywhere like that....” Pepper thought out loud.

“Well that's good! Ain't it boss?” the unit commander suddenly replied, “We got em! They ain't goin' anywhere! I'd say that's a job well do-”

“YOU IDIOT!” Yelled Pepper, now standing and leaning over his desk “I WANT THEM HERE! NOT SLOWLY DROWNING SOMEWHERE ON THIS AWFUL WATERY ORB! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!”

“Y-YES SIR! SORRY SIR!” The commander replied, awkwardly saluting before leaving the room.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour had gone by since the groups escape. Team Starfox, with the addition of Bill, had gathered into the medical bay upon being told of Fox's state.

They stood over him as he lay silently on a small hospital bed. His wound awkwardly bandaged as best as it could have been by someone who wasn't a medical professional.

he lay unconscious as none of the groups attempts to pull him back into consciousness had proved fruitful.

Peppy sat over him on a small plastic chair. Gently squeezing his hand and looking down sadly at him.

“Th...the boy needs attention' from a medical professional...ya'all”

“H-he i-is st-stablized th-though....ri-right?” Slippy asked.

“Yeah....” replied Peppy, holding back his tears “This ain't exactly ideal though.... There ain't no way for us to know when or even IF he'll wake up...or even if he'll be alright in the long run”

Falke had sat on a nearby bed...her head in her hands...the emotional turmoil of seeing her dear friend in this state proving too much for even her hardened outer exterior.

“We'll get him outta here!” Falke suddenly interjected, “We gotta... We HAVE to!”

Falke rose from the bed....a look of determination replacing her previous despair “Come on you guys! Fox wouldn't want all of us to mope around here! He'd want us to do everythin' in our power to complete our mission without him!”

“F...falco....” Peppy said, some of his own despair being washed away by his comrades pep talk “Dang it, ya right. C'mon everybody! Let's get back on it!”

“That's what I wanted to hear from ya..ol man...C'mon guys!” She said as the now rallied group began their exit from the room  
“There's somethin' I'm dyin' to tell ya all as soon as foxy wakes up”

The group had now fully left the room....leaving Fox alone...with only the vivid dreams he found himself experiencing for company

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fox once again stood in front of his father's grave. A place he had visited frequently. A place that had haunted his mind for as long as he could remember.

Rain loudly pelted against him. Drenching him and making his fur and the dark black tuxedo he was wearing incredibly damp.

It was with shock, that Fox realized that the ground in front of his father's tombstone was wildly moving around. Something trying to dig itself out.

Fox found himself unable to move or otherwise react to what he was seeing. And just blankly stared down as a hand emerged from the dirt. The hand of his own father.


	35. Chapter 35

Fox blankly watched his father rise out of the dirt. The rain intensified into hail that bounced off his body.

Soon, the older fox had pulled himself to his feet and stood before him. His eyes were obscured by his sunglasses. But Fox could feel them staring into him.

Fox hadn't had much time with his father before his untimely demise, as he had been taken away from him at the tender age of five. So even if the two did nothing but stare at each other, frozen in time, it made him happy.

His father began to step towards him. The sound of his boots loudly squishing against the mud. Fox could do nothing. Not even move a muscle, as his father approached before stopping right in front of his son.

The two again stood still for a few seconds before his father wrapped him in a warm, tight hug.

Fox closed his eyes, the warmth slowly comforting him as the rain ceased. Fox hadn't felt his father's embrace since he was but a tiny child.

“I'm so, so proud of you son”

With these words, warm tears fell down foxes face. The approval he had so desperately wanted his entire life finally something he had achieved.

This emotional scene didn't last long, as his father twisted around, his son still wrapped tight in his arms, and pushed him back into the very same grave he had dug himself out of.

Fox just lay there, looking directly up into the sun as his father began to dig dirt over him, burying him alive.

As the darkness began to engulf him, he once again drifted out of consciousness.

\----------------------------------------------------------------

Peppy sat down in front of the hospital bed that Fox occupied. As regret washed over his body. The dimly lit room matching how he felt.

Peppy shook his head as he realized just how deeply involved he was in the things that had led to this happening and couldn't help but hate himself a little.

It was as Peppy mulled this over, that the door to the med bay swung open and in entered an unexpected visitor: Wolf O'donnel.

“You've got some things to tell me, gramps” Wolf greeted as he leaned into one of the corners of the room

“Do I?”

“Yes. Yes, you do. Does Project JMC ring any bells?”

“PR-PROJECT JAY EM CEE?” Peppy yelled, now rising out of his chair and turning to face wolf “H-HOW DO YA....”

“Andrew told you of our time at the venom research site, correct?.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secret Research Lab - Venom-

Pigma stood over the now knocked out group. Reaching a hand to his ear, he turned on a small transmitter

“Yeah...Yeah, it's me....No...No Not them...It's Pigma....yeah...yeah...I had to take them out...yeah....Leon, Andrew and...W-”

As Pigma looked over the group, he realized one important absense: Wolf O'Donnel.

“Sorry captin'! Gotta check on somethin' reaaal quick!”

Wolf threw himself behind a desk after quietly sneaking through the shutters when Pigma had looked away for just a second.

He desperately tried to reach for his blaster as he tried to shake off the shock and numbness that being hit with such a high voltage had caused. His hand and arm twitching involuntarily. It was as he sat there that he took a glance to the left of the room

He saw stasis pods filled to the brim with identical looking men. All of them wearing sunglasses and bearing quite the resemblance to Wolf's rival: Fox Mcloud.

As Wolf desperately tried to comprehend what he was seeing, that he heard the loud clanking of boots against the metal floor. He knew exactly who was entering.

“Ya can't hide from me, booy!” taunted Pigma as he entered the room, wildly pointing his gun around in various directions “I just hit ya with god knows how many volts! Ya ain't goin far!”

Pigma continued to walk through the room. Getting closer and closer to the desk Wolf had hid himself behind.

“Ya gonna be reaal easy to find! Especially, with all the smoke that's probably comin' off ya! Ya should be glad I had orders to take ya'all alive!”

Wolf was just moments away from shaking away enough numbness to be able to pull his blaster out when Pigma stepped even closer towards him. Now right in front of the other side of the desk

“C'mon! Come out already! Ya've already seen enough! I got told to keep this lil JMC thing under wraps! And you ain't helpin'!!”

It was thanks to his former colleagues gloating, that Wolf finally regained enough feeling in his arm to finally reach into his holster.

Rising to his feet, wolf swung around and fired a shot directly into Pigma face, launching him back into a nearby desk.

Wolf now stood over his former colleague, and with a quick glance of his recently fired blaster, he realized it was set to stun.

He pointed it at Pigma for a solid second. And was extremely tempted to switch his weapon to its lethal mode and fire a shot. But something inside him made him reconsider. He wasn't sure if it was reluctance to hurt an old war buddy, or if he just wanted answers. But either way it was enough to make him put his blaster back into his holster. It just meant he'd have to figure out what on earth was going on here sooner, rather then later.


	36. Chapter 36

Wolf walked up to one of the Stasis pods that contained one of the many Mclouds. It took him awhile to parse that it wasn't Fox he was looking at but his Father. He had seen James in some news report or something years before his time in the merc business and the connection had only just set in.

It didn't take Wolf long to put two and two together: They were cloning him.

Wolf walked over to a nearby desk and pulled open one of its cabinets. noticing and pulling out two folders conveniently labeled “Aquas Blacksite” and “Project JMC” respectively.

===============================================

-The submarine med bay, present-

“Anyway, I'll spare ya the rest of the details of my time there” Wolf finished, pulling the folder marked “Project JMC” out of his jacket and tossing it onto Peppy's lap.

“Ya.....ya've done yer research...huh?”

“Please, old man. I always know what I'm getting into whenever I take a job. I'll leave ya with foxy boy for now. Meet me in the dining hall, tomorrow, midnight”.

With that, Wolf swung open the door and took his leave. Leaving Peppy alone in the dimly lit med bay.

After a short walk down the hall, Wolf entered the small living quarters that he and his team had helped themselves to. Leon rested on one of the bunks, quietly fiddling with a knife he procured somehow. while Andrew paced around the room, anger visible in his face. This anger only intensified when he noticed Wolf enter the room.

“LISTEN, 'BOSS!'” Andrew said, pointing his finger at Wolf as he walked towards him “With ALL due respect WHY HAVEN'T YOU TAKEN CARE OF THEM YET! YOU'VE HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH CHANCES T-”

“Look... Oikonny...” replied Wolf, sitting down on his bunk “We NEED them as it stands. I've been waiting for my shot as much as you have. You need to understand th-”

“UNDERSTAND?” Yelled Andrew, now visibly shaking “IT'S YOU WHO NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY'VE TAKEN AWAY FROM ME?”

“Do you two NEED to argue like a married couple?” Leon interjected, now sitting up on his own bunk and swinging his knife around with his hands “Please... Arguing like this settles so little... I can think of several better ways you two could be-”

“UGH!” Yelled Andrew, throwing his hands up in the air “I CAN'T WORK WITH ANY OF THIS!”

Andrew began to angrily stomp out of the room, almost like a child having a tantrum, and swung open the door.

“JUST KNOW THIS! IF YOU WON'T TAKE CARE OF THIS TEAM OF FILTH...THEN I'LL DO IT MYSELF!”

With those words, Andrew left, angrily slamming the door behind him.

“God... I need a drink” Wolf sighed as he lay down on his own bunk.

“I gotta say though, boss... What is it you hope to gain by leavin' Mclouds pals alive rather than cutting them to shreds?” Leon asked, now also resting on his bunk.

“Tch...well I've already gained one thing from them”

“Oooh? Curious... Do tell!”

“Heh...that's my secret to keep for now.... But there's another thing I hope to gain....something you'll see soon...”

“Tch... I hate it when you keep secrets from me boss...but sure... I won't rob you of the surprise, I guess”.

===============================================

Falke wandered into the supply room. The group had agreed to go over what was stored in here in the morning to figure out how long they'd be able to survive. Falke could have waited until then to do what she wanted to do here. But she simply couldn't wait any longer.

She rummaged through box after box, mostly finding disgusting, cheap looking military rations, body armor, and weaponry. After the sixth or seventh box. She had given up. Now sitting on the floor against one of the many, many boxes.

She didn't know why she expected to find anything here. She just wanted to find ANYTHING. Some lipstick, some mascara, just ANYTHING.

She had put on a tough, brave face to motivate the rest of the team. But really the idea of being stuck on this submarine for much time, particularly having her eyes opened on WHY she had been feeling this way for so long all the more painful.

This mixed with what had happened to Fox, had caused her to feel a cocktail of emotions unlike any she had ever felt before.

Tears began to slowly drip down her face. The pressure of everything proving far too much for everything to take.

She quietly weeped, for what seemed like hours before the doors into the room swung open. Slippy stepped inside and quickly noticed Falke on the floor, her face covered in tears.

“W-wh...wh..” Slippy Stuttered “H-Hey th-there Fa-Falco...yo-you a-alright there?”

“Ye-yeah” Falke replied, trying to hide the additional discomfort Slippy had brought in by using that name “I'm good.”

“D-do y-you wa-wanna ta-talk ab-about i-it o-or....”

Slippy didn't get a chance to continue, as with a “Nah I'm good” Falke had risen to her feet and walked past him and out of the room without any additional words. leaving Slippy alone.

===============================================

Fox found himself returning to consciousness. It took him awhile to parse where exactly he was. But when he did he realized he was still in the submarine control bay in the Aquas Blacksite. Which brought up another, worrying question: the knife that had been stabbed into him.

He quickly looked down to his stomach to find quite the baffling sight: No knife. No Stab wounds. Nothing.

rising to his feet and looking around the room, he saw that absolutely nobody was present. Something that only deepened his confusion.

Rushing to one of the doors, he desperately attempted to pull it open, with no success as it had been locked shut.

It was as he turned to try the other door, that it swung open, and once again stepped in Fox's father, holding the very same knife he had the last time this had happened.


	37. Chapter 37

Fox pulled at the door handle fruitlessly before loudly slamming himself into it repeatedly in an attempt to get it open. his assailant getting closer and closer with every step he took. The lights starting to flicker on and off. Alternating the room between blinding brightness and inky darkness.

before long, the lights died and the room was finally thrown into complete darkness. Fox continued his fruitless efforts to escape as his father now stood a mere inch behind him. It was too late. Far far too late.

“I'm so, so proud of you, Son” James quietly whispered as he rose his knife into the air before swinging it downwards, directly down onto his own sons back.

Fox again found himself leaving conciousness as unbearable pain washed over his body

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Falke lay alone on the top half of a bunk bed. Sleep had eluded her for hours. Her brain operating at too fast a rate to allow her to relax. It was as she stared into the ceiling that she heard someone knocking on the front door.

She tried to ignore it. Putting her head under her pillow and closing her eyes. Before changing her mind as the knocking continued for one minute, two minutes, and then an additional third.

Leaving bed by jumping down over the rail rather than climbing down the ladder, she started to make her way towards the door

“Yeah yeah, i'm comin'! I'm comin!” Falke responded to the continued knocking as she continued her walk towards the door. Upon finally swinging it open she found Slippy standing like a statue, as if pondering what to say, before noticing that the door was now open.

“H-Hey th-there”

“I uh, hey there slipps.”

“I uh...h-hi.”

“Hey”

“......”

“.....”

“........”

“................”

This continued for a solid minute. The sound of the ship's engine providing the only ambiance.

“D-D-do y-you w-wanna talk about the G8 Lancer?” Slippy asked, pulling out a magazine named “Starship Schematics Monthly”.

“Oh hell yeah dude!” Falke replied “C'mon in!”

The two went over the magazines for a solid hour or two. Enthusiastically sharing speculation and just generally gushing over the upcoming Arwing replacement: The G8 Lancer. It was being developed by Space Dynamics. An organization Slippy's father had worked at.

It was as the two continued to talk about one of their main shared interests, that Slippy finally decided to ask.

“I uh...ju-just wan-wanted to as-ask... are you u-uh.do-doin' ok?”

“Well I mean yeah. Course I am. Slipps.”

“I-I wo-wouldn't cal-call wh-what I saw b-back th-there o-okay....”

Falke sat in silence for a few seconds. She knew he was right. But actually biting the bullet and admitting that to him was easier said than done.

“Lo-look...” Slippy said, breaking Falke away from her introspection “Ya...ya don't go-gotta tell me if yo-you don't wan-wanna... I-I'm just wor-worried about you...ya kn-know....?”

Falke deeply sighed. Although she appeared frustrated outwardly, she did deeply appreciate her friend's concern. It being enough to make her decide to open her heart.

“Look Slipps.... I'm...fine.... It's just I've had a lot on my mind lately and everything that's been happenin lately has just kinda been...ya know...”

“Y-yeah I...I ge-get you”

“I-I've also been doin' some introspection lately and the thing is...I uh...well its kinda....”

She found herself struggling to get the words out. Sitting silently for a second or two before continuing 

“Look...the thing is...I dunno if I feel like a guy anymore? Ah forget I said anything I'm ju-”

Without another word, Falke found herself being wrapped in a tight hug. It took a couple of seconds for Falke to process before she returned the favor by wrapping her arms around Slippy.

The two spent another hour or two together. The two going over Falke's recent self exploration.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Peppy sat alone in the dining hall. He had been waiting for a solid hour already. Wolf was beyond late.

It was after an eternity seemed to go by, that Wolf finally stepped in. Sitting down on one of the many chairs that lined the dining table Peppy also sat at.

“Right old man...let me get straight to the point...”

Peppy sat silently, waiting for Wolf to continue. He was certain it was just a few seconds, but it felt more like hours from his perspective.

“I'm here to recruit your help.”

“Ya...yer what?”

“I know you had direct involvement in General Peppers whole clonin' scheme. And I know ya want payback as much as I do.”

Peppy was surprised. He had come here expecting Wolf to pull some sort of extortion over him. And yet here he was directly offering his help.

“What's in it for ya'self?”

“Heh....Let's just say when someone crosses Star Wolf...they don't get to get away with it...and I'm willin' to put our differences aside....fer now, at least.”


End file.
